‘Stop the Madness’: Trump’s East Potomac Golf Course Plan Moves Ahead as He Rejects Fallout from a Damaging Health Inspection at Another Club
President Donald Trump is continuing to shake up the city of Potomac Falls, Virginia.
After another damaging health inspection at one of his golf clubs, Trump’s team called the findings “false” and “fabricated.”
Membership starts with a $100,000 initiation fee, but critics say that apparently doesn’t guarantee a bug-free storage room.
Loudoun County officials inspected the site on June 30 and found a large cluster of flies, unapproved pest-control products, and food stored in the USDA’s “danger zone.”
Inspectors also found raw meat stored above ready-to-eat items and an outdoor station without proper handwashing facilities.
The official statement on behalf of the Trumps proves no one is taking the report quietly.
“We operate our properties to the highest health and safety standards,” the club said in a statement. “These so-called ‘violations’ are fabricated, politically motivated, and completely without merit. We stand firmly behind the integrity of our operations and reject these baseless claims.”
It’s a familiar defense. Trump-branded properties have used the same defense before, blaming politics instead of cleanliness issues.
Critics say his new project reflects a pattern of Trump sidestepping regulatory safeguards.
His administration announced last month that renovations to the East Potomac Golf Links will begin on Sept. 1, despite ongoing legal challenges and concerns over the approval process.
The plan is to transform East Potomac Park into a championship golf course. The project also faces new scrutiny after officials disclosed they had not completed soil testing before declaring the site safe.
The project will reportedly move forward without review from two key federal oversight agencies.
Meanwhile, another lawsuit may be looming after Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation raised concerns.
“There is really this ability to ignore regulatory guardrails, rules and protocols that have existed in the past,” Birnbaum told CNN. “And we just see it again and again, and the golf course, sadly, is yet another example of that.”
In May, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum unveiled renderings of the planned renovations. The designs came from Fazio Design, the firm owned by renowned golf architect Tom Fazio, who also designed Trump’s Bedminster golf course and three other Trump properties.
“The president’s idea is to upgrade it to be literally a national monument,” Fazio told Golf.com.
A month later, Trump, Burgum, and Fazio toured East Potomac with blueprints in hand. The property includes two nine-hole courses and one 18-hole course.
Government lawyers told a federal judge they have no formal agreement with Golf architect Tom Fazio, despite expectations that he will oversee the project.
Meanwhile, critics argue the renovation violates federal environmental laws and should not move forward.
“Stop the madness,” said one Facebook user after learning about Trump’s plot to take over another golf course. Another Tearing down the oldest grove of Cherry Trees! Someone stop him!
Another asked, “At whose authority? Did he purchase the land? He can’t put his own golf course on public land. He doesn’t own. Congress better step in NOW, before he destroys anything else!
“Oh lordy please give him some [LEGO] or a computer program to play with,” suggested one person who believed Trump is bored.”
Several of Trump’s properties have a documented history of violations and failing health inspections.
Health inspectors previously cited Trump National Golf Club Westchester for insects, rodents, dirty surfaces, and other violations. And so was his Trump International Hotel in Chicago, which also dealt with fly infestations.
Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, club fared even worse last year, scoring a 32 out of 100 after inspectors found expired milk, improperly stored raw meat, faulty dishwashing equipment, and missing hand soap.
A follow-up visit brought the Bedminster score up to 86. Yet inspectors still noted dairy stored above safe temperatures, wet wiping cloths left outside the sanitizing solution, and mops improperly stored instead of hanging to dry.
Overseas, Trump’s golf course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, has also drawn scrutiny. Wastewater samples tied to the property reportedly exceeded contamination limits on multiple occasions, though regulators said the environmental impact was minimal and renewed the club’s operating licenses.
The denials, too, follow a pattern. Bedminster’s management also blamed politics when their violations came to light, describing the club as immaculately run despite the inspection record.
Trump’s business history extends well beyond golf. Watchdog groups like Violation Tracker have logged dozens of regulatory citations across his properties, including environmental violations at Bedminster and the Chicago hotel, and labor complaints at his Las Vegas and Los Angeles locations.
Several Trump-branded ventures have collapsed entirely.
The Trump Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and closed permanently in 2016, later reopening as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino shut down in 2014 and was demolished in 2021. Trump Castle, later Trump Marina, was sold and rebranded as the Golden Nugget in 2011.
Trump-tied entities have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times in total, primarily tied to his Atlantic City casino empire and the Plaza Hotel in New York, which he also lost through a 1992 restructuring.
Regulators shut down other Trump ventures before they failed financially.
New York’s attorney general shut down Trump University after accusing it of fraud, ultimately settling the case for $25 million. The Donald J. Trump Foundation was dissolved in 2018, citing a “shocking pattern of illegality.”
Given that track record, it’s little surprise the public isn’t inclined to take the club’s denial at face value.