‘Oh No’: Trump’s Latest D.C. Makeover Hits a Major Snag — Making the Reflecting Pool Debacle Look Minor
President Donald Trump wants to overhaul a “dilapidated” D.C. golf course, but his makeover could become a mess.
The 80-year-old president has spent much of his second term reshaping the capital around his vision.
He recently boasted about his plan to renovate the 300-acre East Potomac Golf Links into a championship-caliber venue.
Trump pushed major changes to the public golf course without approval from two key agencies: the National Capital Planning Commission or the Commission on Fine Arts.
The usual review process takes months, but the administration appears to have rushed the project toward a fall groundbreaking.
Legal action over the proposed East Potomac restoration is playing out in a federal court. The DC Preservation League is spearheading one of the challenges.
However, Trump seems determined to move forward despite the lawsuits. He directed the Department of the Interior to initiate the effort.
On June 28, Trump shared a lengthy message on Truth Social about his vision for the golf course located on Hains Point Island on the Potomac River.
The divisive leader of the MAGA movement called the site “worn out,” “dangerous,” and “outdated” in his social media diatribe.
He also wrote, “The course is virtually unplayable! Work on the new course, which will go quickly, will begin on September 1st.”
While Trump griped that the current course is unplayable, a new Mother Jones report offers details on why construction of a new course may be undoable.
“Let’s be honest,” Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League, told the progressive news outlet. “The island is sinking.”
In addition, Mother Jones reporter Stephanie Mencimer put on rain boots and visited the East Potomac Golf Links. She shared footage from the location in videos posted to social media.
“Anyone that lives here knows that this space is always halfway underwater,” Mencimer stated while standing in ankle-level water. “It floods. It’s swampy. It’s not really designed for large-scale development.”
The veteran journalist added, “People have been talking about fixing this up for decades, and they haven’t because it’s really expensive.” The camera then panned to show the waterlogged area near the course.
In the wake of Trump’s other disastrous DC beautification ventures, like the botched Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool upgrade, internet critics began sharing their grievances over the East Potomac plan.
After Trump’s botched Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool upgrade, critics quickly questioned his East Potomac golf course plan.
“The project is to give his friends billions in no-bid contracts,” one Instagram user speculated. “It gets dumber and dumber by the day,” another aggravated commenter complained.
Some also pointed to no-bid contracts awarded to Trump-connected companies, fueling speculation about another potential money-making scheme.
Furthermore, one person declared, “He’s a destroyer not a builder, and his dream is a nightmare.” Another predicted, “He will start, f–k it up, then abandon it. He is out to destroy DC.”
“No!!! It’s not his land!!” exclaimed a Trump detractor, angered by the president looking to overtake municipally-owned land. Another said, “OH NO! Not a bew report!!!”
Meanwhile, one person wondered, “When have facts ever stopped him from doing anything?”
Plus, someone questioned the entire American political system by asking, “Why are the guardrails not working?? Why is no one stopping these disasters?? They seem illegal to us regular folk!”
If East Potomac follows the Reflecting Pool fiasco, Trump could face lawsuits, bad press and another wave of memes.
His $16 million Reflecting Pool project remains mired in controversy as Trump blames damage on both contractors and unnamed vandals.
The president conceded that “some contractor error” caused damage to the historic D.C. attraction. He still blamed unnamed vandals without providing evidence.