Q: Did the Trump administration have 60 cherry blossom trees cut down in D.C. to build a golf course?
A: In what the Department of Interior called “routine maintenance,” about 60 trees were removed from East Potomac Park, according to the Washington Post. But only one cherry tree removal was mentioned in that article, and an advocacy group opposed to major changes to the park told us it only knew “for certain” of one cherry tree being cut down.
FULL ANSWER
In a June 28 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump said that renovations to Washington, D.C.’s East Potomac Golf Links would begin Sept. 1 to build “one of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World” that could “host Major Golf Tournaments.” No major renovations have begun yet. The public golf courses include two nine-hole courses, an 18-hole course, a driving range and other facilities.
As of Sept. 3, tee times were available for booking on the website over the following week for all three courses. The East Potomac Park area also includes bicycle lanes and picnic areas. It’s unclear what the exact renovation plans are, and the project is subject to a lawsuit filed by a preservation group and two D.C.-area golfers.
The potential removal of historic cherry trees became a concern this summer, after Trump was photographed at the golf course on June 28 holding renderings of a redesigned course. The Washington Post wrote at the time that those plans “do not appear to show several of the park’s best-known public amenities, including the riverside bicycle trail, the miniature golf course and Washington’s oldest grove of cherry trees.”
Then, on Aug. 28, the Washington Post reported that more than 60 trees had been removed in recent weeks in the area surrounding the East Potomac Golf Links. The newspaper mentioned only one cherry tree that was removed.
Social media posts are distorting the Washington Post report. Several readers have asked us about social media claims that the Trump administration had cut down 60 cherry trees. One reader asked us to validate a post claiming: “Trump just illegally chopped down SIXTY historic cherry trees in Washington D.C. WITHOUT court approval so that he could ‘renovate’ a GOLF COURSE!” The post goes on to cite the Washington Post, falsely saying that the newspaper “has reported that Trump has gone ahead and chopped down dozens and dozens of beloved cherry and sycamore trees at the historic East Potomac Golf Links.”
As we said, the article doesn’t say that “dozens” of cherry trees were removed. It mentions one cherry tree, as well as two sycamore trees. It doesn’t provide details on what other types of trees were chopped down.
Alex Rosen, a spokesman for the advocacy group Save East Po, told us that the social media claims were false. “I have noticed people online saying ‘60 cherry trees.’ I can tell you that this is totally untrue. We know for certain that 1 cherry tree was cut down.”
Save East Po describes itself as “an independent, grassroots coalition of DMV neighbors, runners, cyclists, picnickers, fishers, families, and the golfers who actually play this course, who all want the same thing: keep East Potomac Park public, accessible, and affordable.”
“There might have been one other [cherry tree] cut down but I am not certain on that,” Rosen said in an email. “What we are worried about is that more will come down as the admin continues to operate in very closed door ways.”
The Department of the Interior told us — as it told the Washington Post — that “[a]rborists 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.”
The Washington Post reported that workers with the company RTEC Treecare were cutting down trees at the park on Aug. 27, but RTEC told the Post that it hadn’t removed any cherry trees. RTEC Treecare now has a pop-up message on its website saying, “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 asked the Interior Department if it could clarify whether any of the trees were cherry trees, but we did not get a response. We also did not receive a response from the National Park Service.
East Potomac Golf Links Renovation
Tee times at East Potomac Golf Links for the 18-hole course start at $42 for non-seniors, below the national average of $48 for public courses.
Rosen’s group and others are concerned that the administration’s renovations could lead to higher prices and reduced access to the courses and other public spaces in the larger park.
In May, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared a rendering of the renovated course, saying it would offer “championship-quality golf at affordable, highly discounted rates.” The rendering posted by Burgum would combine the existing courses into one, 18-hole course, and add a short, par-3 course and an expanded practice area, as the New York Times explained.
Burgum credited the plan to Fazio Design, led by golf course designer Tom Fazio. The Fazio family has designed many of Trump’s golf courses.
The Times reported that “Washington’s oldest grove of cherry trees — a gift from Japan in 1910 — currently sits between the fourth and the ninth holes on the White Course. In the Fazio plan, the grove is shown in the middle of the practice range. Its fate is uncertain.”
In July, Rosen told us the publicly released image from Burgum “differs significantly from the one Trump was recently photographed holding” in late June. In the designs Trump was holding, there was no short par-3 course, and it was unclear what would happen to the existing bicycle path and mini-golf course.
On Sept. 1, Rosen said there has been no further clarity on the future of the renovations. He pointed out that the potential renovation isn’t included in the Sept. 3 National Capital Planning Commission meeting agenda. The NCPC is responsible for reviewing the federal government’s plans for developing the National Capital Region.
The New York Times reported on Sept. 2, “The administration has not submitted plans to any review panel.”
Fazio told Golf.com in June that the president’s vision did not include removing the cherry trees. “The president has mentioned that several times he loves the trees,” Fazio said. “He wants to make sure we protect those trees and take care of the trees.”
The fight over the legality of the golf course renovation is ongoing. The DC Preservation League filed a lawsuit in February, arguing that the administration’s actions threaten to “wrest the Park from the people.” The suit asked the courts to block the administration from dumping dirt and debris — from the White House East Wing renovations — at East Potomac Park and to block the administration from implementing a renovation plan without going through environmental and preservation approval protocols.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes is overseeing the case. In May, the Associated Press reported that she “told the National Park Service that it should first discuss any plans with government lawyers if it was going to cut down more than 10 trees.”
In July, the AP reported that Reyes asked for assurances that the plaintiffs wouldn’t “suddenly learn in the ‘middle of the night’ that there were bulldozers at the course ‘chopping down cherry trees.’”
Michael Robertson, an attorney from the Justice Department, “told Reyes repeatedly that there was still a lengthy process to undergo that would include signoffs from various planning organizations, the National Capital Planning Commission and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts,” the AP said.
The National Park Service said in an April court filing that it would “complete its compliance in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations prior to authorizing construction activities at the East Potomac Golf Course.”
Reyes has asked both sides in the suit to convene for a status conference on Sept. 3.
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