Federal Judge Receives Death Threats - "Crazed Lunatic": Trump Attacks Federal Judge as His Administration Struggles to Explain Itself

Donald Trump wants to spruce up a golf course in Washington. Hundreds of trees are disappearing, a historic park is slated for redevelopment, and a federal judge is receiving death threats. The president publicly calls her a "crazed lunatic" and questions her mental state. The dispute over the 106-year-old East Potomac Golf Links has now reached a point that goes far beyond how many holes a golf course should have. In the courtroom, Judge Ana Reyes is demanding answers about actions Trump's administration apparently can't even explain consistently. At the White House, they see things as pretty simple. Trump wants to build. The courts should stay out of his way as much as possible.

At the center of the case is the 106-year-old East Potomac Golf Links, a public golf course in Washington whose future Donald Trump has apparently already decided, while his own agencies are still struggling to get their stories straight in court. More than 400 trees have been cut down, a new design is on the table, and the president is announcing that work will begin immediately. Only the government officials responsible seem to know surprisingly little about any of it. Federal Judge Ana Reyes therefore wanted to know from Justice Department attorneys how redevelopment could begin when there supposedly wasn't even a final plan. The administration also denies that the tree cutting has anything to do with Trump's project. Of all things, a report from 2019 is supposed to explain why, 7 years later, plans were approved and hundreds of trees were removed within a matter of days. In the courtroom, the timing leaves a distinctly unpleasant impression. While irreversible changes are already being made outside, government lawyers inside are busy explaining why those changes supposedly have nothing to do with the announced redevelopment project. Those distinctions are hardly going to bring the fallen trees back to life.

On October 10, more than 400 trees were cut down on the property. The work began over a holiday weekend, after the court and the plaintiffs had been given only short notice. Reyes then prohibited further cutting and suspended the redevelopment until at least October 26. She also required 3 business days' advance notice before any irreversible changes. The administration insists the tree removal had nothing to do with Trump's golf course plans. It claims the work was based on a 2019 National Park Service report recommending the restoration of the historic landscape. An explanation whose timing has become increasingly difficult to defend.

Because on Sunday, Trump announced that the Interior Department and renowned golf course architect Tom Fazio had developed a completed design. The course would close on November 15 for 15 months and be transformed into a world-class facility. On Monday, the president went further: Work would begin immediately. While Trump was already publicly announcing the start of construction, his administration's lawyers were telling the court that no final plan existed at all. The responsible park authorities still needed to complete their review. The design could still change.

Judge Reyes wanted to know whom she was supposed to believe. The president of the United States or his lawyers? If planning was still underway, how could construction begin immediately? The question landed on an administration whose public certainties were losing their credibility remarkably quickly inside the courtroom.

Gregory Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, testified under oath that he had first learned about the planned closure date from Trump's public announcement. He said he hadn't seen the new design until the previous Thursday, when Gavin Fazio, the architect's son, sent it to his personal cellphone. Asked about Trump's announcement that construction would begin immediately, Wischer admitted they weren't ready for that yet. Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, was likewise unaware of any planned closure on November 15. She would certainly expect to be informed of such a decision. After all, her agency manages the property. The president apparently already has a timeline for a project whose key details the officials responsible are only learning from his public statements.

The questioning became even more uncomfortable when it turned to the tree cutting. According to their own testimony, Wischer and Bowron hadn't become familiar with the 7-year-old report until late September. A few days later, a tree management plan had been approved. On October 10, the chainsaws started. Reyes found it hard to believe that this sequence of events was merely a coincidence. A whole series of supposedly unrelated decisions had come together within a remarkably short time on the very property Trump wants to redevelop. The judge indicated that, based on the evidence so far, she intended to find that the tree removal was part of his broader project. She did not, however, issue a final ruling on Monday.

The design itself also raises questions. The existing 36 holes are supposed to be replaced by an 18-hole championship course. The plans could eliminate historic Ohio Drive, along with an old miniature golf course and a roughly 100-year-old grove of Japanese cherry trees. Thousands of people use the area for running or cycling. Until now, the public golf course has been accessible to visitors from different income levels. Opponents fear that an affordable recreational space will become a facility whose value to society will increasingly be measured by its exclusivity. Under such circumstances, even the right to take a walk can eventually become a question of how much prestige a landscape can accommodate.

The DC Preservation League and 2 golfers have filed suit against the project. They cite legal protections and question whether the administration is following the required approval procedures. The laws at issue include the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Bowron confirmed in court that a major redevelopment would require the appropriate reviews. Trump apparently sees little reason to hold back. The Interior Department has the absolute right to renovate the course, he says. After all, it's federal property.

The Justice Department had previously tried to have Reyes removed from the case. Senior government attorney Stanley Woodward accused her of open hostility toward the administration and serious misconduct. Reyes rejected the motion Sunday evening. By any objective legal standard, she said, there were no valid grounds for her recusal. The next morning came Trump's personal attack. A judge whose job is to rule on the legality of government actions was publicly called mentally unstable by the president himself.

The confrontation with Woodward then escalated inside the courtroom. Reyes demanded that the government attorneys present personally stand behind the accuracy and legal validity of a court filing. She told them to raise their hands. Woodward objected and instructed his colleagues not to respond. A president announces finalized projects, his agencies deny those projects are final, and even responsibility for written statements becomes a matter of dispute. After nearly 7 hours, the hearing ended without a new ruling. Reyes indicated that she was unlikely to order a complete halt to construction. Extending the ban on further tree cutting and imposing stricter notice requirements before irreversible changes remain possible, however. She would no longer rely on mere assurances from the administration. Things had already gone too far for that.

Toward the end of the hearing, something came to the forefront that cast even the dispute over the fallen trees in a different light. Federal Judge Ana Reyes said her mother and brother had alerted her to reports of death threats. She had also received disturbing emails and voicemails herself. Just hours earlier, the president of the United States had publicly called her a "crazed lunatic" and questioned whether she was mentally sound. Trump had personally attacked a judge whose job was to determine whether his administration was following the law in its redevelopment of a public golf course. Whether his remarks were connected to the threats has not been established. Still, the timing is deeply disturbing: In the morning, the president insults a federal judge. By evening, she's speaking before a packed courtroom about threats against her life. "A federal judge is getting death threats over a golf course," Reyes said. She doubted that was what the Founding Fathers had envisioned. In a country whose Constitution is supposed to protect judicial independence, a judge has now become the target of the very kind of threat the law is meant to protect individuals against. And all because a president wants to remake a golf course to suit his personal preferences.

Meanwhile, Trump described the course as old and run-down, practically useless and doing little business. He merely wanted to improve it, he said. In Washington, the president has already had historic buildings demolished or altered, renamed others, and deployed the National Guard for an extended period. Now his desire to reshape the capital has turned to a public property where some of the trees are already gone while the legal questions remain before the court. Wood can be cleared away quickly. A fallen tree doesn't wait for a judge's ruling.