President Donald Trump is continuing to destroy historic trees in order to build a private golf course — and one of his officials took to X to gloat about actions that the involved judge described as a “massive fire drill” for democracy.
“I missed the part of the Constitutional Convention that put federal judges in charge of golf course maintenance,” Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, posted on X on Monday. “The Left is endlessly enraged that, after allowing DC to decay for decades, the Trump Administration is making it safe, clean and beautiful.”
Miller was responding to a story by journalist Kyle Cheney, Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter.
“HAPPENING NOW: Judge Reyes is furious,” Miller wrote. “She has repeatedly told the government to inform her before any major demolition work was done on the golf course. The abrupt removal of 500 trees, without notice, ‘has cost the government all of its credibility’ in this case.”
Vox editorial director Benjy Sarlin darkly joked about how Trump, by defying court orders that he stop construction on public property, was triggering a potentially historic legal battle over a matter many would regard as mundane.
“It would be the most Trump II thing possible to make the golf course the Constitutional crisis point,” Miller wrote.
Another critic of Trump, former United States Attorney Joyce Alene, expressed skepticism about whether Judge Ana C. Reyes will act as necessary to compel compliance from Trump.
“Listening to the hearing with a retired Judge who characterized this as ‘she’s really p – – – – off,'” Alene posted on X. “The question is, what is she prepared to do about it & ultimately, will SCOTUS back her.”
Many MAGA supporters joined in Miller’s gloating, including the head of an influential right-wing publication, The Federalist.
“As everyone knows, the Constitution vests the power of cutting down trees with random unelected judges,” wrote Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, on Monday. “The president must also get unanimous approval from every unelected inferior judge before spraying or pulling weeds. Raking traps is a gray area. But don’t even think about spreading seed without judicial approval.”
Trump’s defiance of Reyes’ court is hardly uncharacteristic. In various legal cases he has refused to follow court orders in states and municipalities like New Jersey (more than 50 times), Minnesota, Rhode Island, Illinois and Washington, D.C. So far, all Reyes has done to force Trump to comply is order the deputy director of National Park Service to retain all communications about the East Potomac Golf Course and make sure all relevant notes pertaining to Trump’s attempted construction are preserved.
In addition to allegedly breaking laws in order to build his golf course, Trump is also accused by golf expert and sportswriter Rick Reilly of being an inveterate golf cheat.
Reilly has written that, “Among the many hilarious things about club championship #43 is that he lies so much about them he loses his place. We went from 26 to 36 overnight, then skipped 39, 40 and 41. Actual number: 0.”
He later questioned Trump’s claim to have won that event with a score of under 70, arguing that “just so non-golfers know[,] No 80-year-old on earth with a pancake swing and the chip yips has ever shot TEN SHOTS under his age. Club members let him win because nobody wants to get audited the rest of their lives.” For the uninitiated, “chip yips” are involuntary twitches or freezes during a chip shot that disrupt a golfer’s normal motion and cause mishits, and are often the result of anxiety or injury.