President Donald Trump lashed out at a federal judge in a pre-dawn rant, branding her “a crazed lunatic” who “may be insane” in a fight over a public golf course.
The Truth Social post went up just after 6 a.m. ET on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, hours before U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes opened another hearing in the fight over East Potomac Golf Links. Trump never used her name. Former President Joe Biden appointed Reyes to the federal bench.
In the post, Trump wrote that the Interior Department wanted to turn a “terrible and very unsafe” course into a “great, safe, and prestigious” one and had an “absolute right” to do it. He called the judge “a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane?”
He also claimed the “random golfer” behind the lawsuit had no standing, insisted Interior needed no approval for what he called a “First Class renovation,” and said work would start immediately and bring income and prestige back to Washington.
The Justice Department’s Failed Bid to Oust Her
The suit was not brought by one golfer. The D.C. Preservation League and two D.C. residents who play the course sued over the work, and the group Democracy Forward represents them. The case has been in court since February.
Hours before Trump’s post, Reyes refused to leave the case. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the Justice Department’s No. 3 official, had moved to disqualify her, arguing she held a clear political bias against the administration. She denied the motion on the night of Sunday, Oct. 18.
“It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion,” Reyes said in her response. By any objective measure, she wrote, the government failed to meet the standard.
Hundreds of Trees Felled Over a Holiday Weekend
In July, Reyes told the administration it had to hand over any renovation plans so the course would not get a surprise overhaul like the White House East Wing demolition or the work at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. She later required three business days’ notice before any irreparable modification to the course.
During the Oct. 9-12 holiday weekend, Interior Department crews felled upward of 400 trees on the century-old course. The court got little to no warning.
Reyes raised her voice several times at an emergency hearing Oct. 12. She said she had repeatedly told the plaintiffs she trusted the government, and that the tree removal had wiped out the government’s credibility. She then barred further cutting through Oct. 26. By Oct. 16, the tree-cutting equipment was gone from the course.
The administration says the work carries out a 2019 National Park Service plan to remove dead, dying and hazardous trees.
Cherry Trees Missing From the Plan
In May, the Interior Department unveiled a design with an 18-hole championship course, a nine-hole short course, a pitch-and-putt and a double-sided driving range. It kept the Ohio Drive loop, walking and biking access around much of the peninsula, and the Hains Point green space with its historic cherry trees.
The version Trump posted over the weekend dropped the nine-hole course, the perimeter loop and the cherry trees. One large championship course now stretches into public recreation space.
Trump announced that plan Sunday, Oct. 18, with an artist’s rendering. According to Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s department teamed with golf architect Tom Fazio on the design. The current course would shut on Nov. 15, construction would run roughly 15 months, and the result would be fit for events such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup. Justice Department lawyers had long argued any championship course was hypothetical.
Reyes took judicial notice of the post the same day and gave the government until 8 p.m. to say whether it still maintained there was no final agency action. Woodward answered that night that nothing is final, because the Park Service has not finished its review. Redesigning a golf course, he wrote, is no more reviewable than a Smithsonian museum rearranging its art exhibits, or trimming trees and mowing the lawn.
In a statement on Sunday, Oct. 18, Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman said East Potomac is a national park and recreation site meant for all to enjoy, and that her group would keep fighting for it with the plaintiffs.
At the Oct. 19 evidentiary hearing, Reyes ordered Woodward and acting National Park Service chief Jessica Bowron to appear, and the administration was expected to fight hard against putting them on the stand. She is weighing whether to impose further restrictions that could affect Trump’s plans for the site. As the hearing began, she appeared frustrated that administration attorneys had not signed a filing.
“We can do this all day,” Reyes said.