Worker in dumpsite where debris from the East Wing is being discarded following Trump's proposed ballroom at the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, D.C., U.S., Oct 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
The case involving East Potomac Park and the golf course has had one problem after another for the Justice Department and President Donald Trump's administration.
After the administration cut down over 400 trees, the judge stopped giving the DOJ lawyers the benefit of the doubt. It's been one rough hearing after another since then.
MS NOW host Alicia Menendez said that she had a question that came more from her curiosity, not necessarily from empathy. "How difficult is it for these attorneys right now to have the president of the United States fundamentally undermining them at every turn?"
Legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance smiled, saying that it shouldn't be that difficult to handle a simple golf course case in court, yet here it is.
"The first time that your client does that to you, you fire the client, or if you're a Justice Department attorney, you take yourself off of the case or you resign because it's utterly intolerable," Vance said. "That's what we're seeing play out in court. It's why Judge [Ana] Reyes is so angry. She's adopted the rule, you know, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
Vance said it's clear the judge won't let them fool her again. The trial began with the judge "bending over backward to give the Justice Department the presumption of regularity, to assume that when they spoke to her, what they said was truthful and representations were made in good faith."
They quickly proved that was not the case. Then Trump inserted himself in the matter and began posting about it on Truth Social.
"And she clearly now had enough," Vance said.
This is just one of many vanity projects Trump has carried out across the District, like the Kennedy Center and his giant arch project. So, it all part of a pattern, said Vance.
"You know, she's been pushing them in court this morning on whether a final decision has been made about whether to implement the new plans for the parks," Vance explained. "The plaintiffs are alleging that this proposed [park] shutdown, that they seek an injunction against, which is set to begin on Sunday, that that's just a prelude to implementing these new plans to alter the way the golf course is structured and laid out and the way the landscaping is done, all of which impacts local use of that property."
So, the hearing is really about whether or not the Justice Department has "been deceitful" about the projects they've tried to do for the past year. Vance said that in many ways, the plaintiffs have plenty of evidence that this Nov. 15 closure date will likely result in the course being torn apart and Trump implementing his plans with or without permission.
"They have a likelihood of success on the merits because of the strength of their evidence that the government is not playing by the rules," Vance said.