Challenging the Trump-Vance Administration’s Attempts to Convert a Longstanding Public Recreational Space into a Private Golf Course for the President

On February 13, 2026, the DC Preservation League and two local residents, represented by Democracy Forward, Lowell & Associates, and Democracy Defenders Fund, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to challenge the Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful and possibly hazardous dumping at East Potomac Park as part of an effort to convert the public recreation space into an exclusive, high-end golf course.

The park is seen as a model for public golf courses in America, and is still the most used public golf course in Washington, D.C. Despite this, DOI and its National Park Service have started efforts that will undermine access to East Potomac Park and seek to build in its place, per media reports, a golf course designed for professional tournaments and private events for the president and wealthy golfers.

East Potomac Park is a unique cultural landscape that itself is an irreplaceable part of American history. These unlawful efforts by the current administration will not only destroy a public treasure but will potentially destroy the environment in and around it. Though any sort of massive reconstruction would legally require review and approvals, including those mandated by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), DOI has already taken several steps in implementing that plan, including dumping roughly 30,000 cubic yards of dirt, debris, and wreckage from the sudden and unlawful excavation for the East Wing Modernization Project at the White House, on the East Potomac Golf Course. That debris included wires, pipes, bricks, and other materials, apparently untested for pollutants or contaminants. 

In addition to unlawfully dumping debris on the course in October 2025, DOI also terminated the lease held by the National Links Trust, a non-profit organization previously entrusted with stewardship of East Potomac Golf Course.

This case challenges the Trump-Vance administration’s attempts to circumvent the law and enact an unlawful assault on our cherished public spaces.