Did Trump cut down dozens of cherry trees for DC golf course renovations?

In late August 2026, Snopes received emails and searches asking if it was true crews cut down dozens of cherry trees to pave the way for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., golf course renovations, specifically the East Potomac Golf Links property inside East Potomac Park, the site of the nation’s first cherry blossom planting.

Earlier in the year, the Trump administration revealed visual plans to overhaul the property into a championship-style golf course. Then, Trump announced on Truth Social that work on the golf course would begin Sept. 1. Earlier in the year, the DC Preservation League filed a lawsuit challenging the project, including citing crews dumping White House East Wing debris at the site.

Readers specifically asked if a rumor that between 60 and 158 cherry trees were chopped down was true, and whether the administration violated a court order by doing so. They also wanted to know if the alleged tree removal impacted the cherry tree collections gifted to the U.S. by Japan in 1910 and 1912.

For example, one reader emailed, “Despite court orders, Trump is moving forward with plans to remove 158 iconic cherry trees near the Tidal Basin and 60 have already been cut down.” 

Another email read, “Has Trump ordered the removal of dozens of cherry trees in DC that were a gift from Japan?”

Social media users shared variants of this claim on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived), among other platforms.

(X user @adamemedia1)

In sum, as of this writing on Sept. 1, we have found no evidence to support the claim, nor any examples of news media outlets reporting that dozens of cherry trees were removed from East Potomac Park, including any that arrived from Japan in 1910 or 1912. 

Regarding court orders, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes reportedly said on May 4 the court must be told if the renovation plans called for the removal of more than 10 trees. 

We haven’t given this multipart claim a true or false rating given the lack of conclusive evidence either way and the fact that it remains an ongoing situation.

One popular Facebook post (archived) indicated the rumor stems at least in part from people misrepresenting an Aug. 28 Washington Post report. That story, headlined “Trees are coming down by the dozen as Trump’s D.C. golf makeover nears,” tells of “newly cut stumps and bare patches of dirt [marking] the places where dozens of trees recently stood” and says an informal count found that 60 trees “appeared to have been removed in recent weeks.” The Post mentions noticing at least one removed cherry tree near the 14th green of the blue course, as well as two large sycamores removed around another area.

An Interior Department spokesperson provided the same statement the Post published, saying arborists recommended recent removals of dying, declining or hazardous trees as a part of routine maintenance:

Arborists are doing routine maintenance at East Potomac Park with selective removal of hazard trees, non-native invasive trees and declining and dying trees that cannot be brought back to good health through any degree of intervention. Trees throughout the park are regularly monitored for potential safety impacts to visitors, and when a tree is determined to be dying, declining or hazardous our arborists may make the decision to remove it.

In response to the department’s statement, we requested numbers of removed trees from previous years for comparison.

For example, in March 2024, when former President Joe Biden was in office, the NPS reportedly announced a $133 million project to rebuild and reinforce the sea wall of the Tidal Basin, an area located north of East Potomac Park. The work, scheduled at the time to last three years, featured the removal of 140 cherry trees out of 300 total trees, as well as the replanting of 277 cherry trees at the project’s conclusion. Those removals included a beloved tree named “Stumpy.”

According to an NPS article last updated in 2019, fewer than 100 of the cherry trees Japan gifted the U.S. in the early 1900s remain to this day and are planted along the Tidal Basin and around the park and the city. Those few remaining trees make up only a small portion of “the nearly 4,000 cherry trees growing in West and East Potomac Parks, on the Washington Monument grounds, and in several other park locations.”

Officials reportedly burned most of Japan’s 1910 cherry-tree shipment after arrival upon finding they were infested with insects and disease, with the 1912 shipment proving more successful. In 2009, the Post, citing century-old reporting, told of some of the 1910 trees possibly being saved and planted in an “experimental plot” — a gathering possibly remaining to this day, located at the southern tip of the park in Hains Point.

We reached out to the White House, which referred us to the Interior Department, as well as the DC Preservation League and the National Park Service for further comment, and will update this article if we receive further information. We also contacted Post writer Rick Maese, who posted on X, “It doesn’t seem like any cherry trees from the historic grove have been impacted thus far.” Another journalist responded to the post, bringing up the 2009 Post article about officials possibly planting a small number of Japan’s 1910 shipment.

An online booking search for East Potomac Golf Links tee times showed availability continuing into the first days of September, with no sign of any potential closures.

Tree care company denies axing cherry trees

During the Post’s Aug. 27 visit to the property — a site Snopes has not visited firsthand — the writer reported seeing a company named RTEC Treecare cutting trees, including a large tree that showed “clear signs of decay.” The writer also mentioned noticing white dots and yellow ribbons on some trees, marked for purposes not known to the Post.

The RTEC Treecare website displays a message addressing the cherry tree rumor, reading in part as follows (bolded emphasis theirs):

RTEC Treecare is currently performing hazard tree pruning and removal services for the National Park Service at East Potomac Park Golf Course. The trees assigned for treatment have been evaluated and selected by National Park Service arborists based on established hazard assessment criteria.

We want to be clear: RTEC Treecare has not removed any cherry trees at East Potomac Park Golf Course. Our work has been limited to trees identified by the National Park Service as hazardous, non-native, or invasive.

We contacted RTEC Treecare to ask if they were aware of who chopped down the cherry tree the Post reported about and will update this story if we receive more details.

DC eyewitness reports from East Potomac Park

On Aug. 31, Threads user @drybrarian, whose bio identifies him as “Kennedy Center Bike Guy,” posted (archived) photos purporting to show the current state of East Potomac Park, including one displaying a newspaper with the day’s date as evidence of when he captured the images. The thread of posts, featuring more than the post embedded below, reported that the user witnessed some trees being cut down, adding, “there has NOT been a wholesale Cherry Blossom Massacre,” as well as that “the VAST majority of the trees are still there.”

We messaged the user to ask for further information and will update this story accordingly.

For further reading, we previously reported in July about similar rumors of the Trump administration planning to chop down cherry trees.

Sources