Trump hits a new roadblock in latest DC makeover project after judge steps in

A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s administration from ripping down trees at Washington, D.C.’s East Potomac Golf Links after preservation groups warned that more than 500 were knocked down over the weekend with potentially “hundreds more” slated for removal.District Judge Ana C. Reyes has blocked the government from removing any trees on the property until 7 a.m. Tuesday or until she issues another order that could indefinitely extend the block.She is scheduled to hear from the Department of Justice and preservation groups at an emergency hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.The judge wants to know who ordered the tree removal and when that order was received, “the exact time preparations first began for the tree removal,” the “full chronology and steps of that preparation, and “when government counsel was first informed of the plan and timing.”Trump’s proposed overhaul of the public golf course — part of his extensive plans to remake the nation’s capital with sweeping changes to the landscape and public monuments — was happening “faster than anticipated,” according to preservation groups who are suing to stop the deconstruction.“This is a tactic we’ve seen before from the Trump-Vance administration — act quickly to irrevocably alter a cherished national landmark, just to advance another one of President Trump’s pet vanity projects,” according to Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs in the case.“We are asking the court to act quickly before further unnecessary damage is done to a jewel of our national park system,” she added.This is a developing story