DC golf course 'in limbo' as Trump remodeling venture 'morphs into chaos': insiders

A new report accuses President Trump of taking over Washington DC’s public golf courses in a plan that could make them unaffordable to ordinary residents.

Trump — who since taking office in 2025 has extensively remodeled Washington D.C. from the White House’s East Wing to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — collaborated with the National Park Service and a pro-golf nonprofit called the National Links Trust to renovate DC’s golf courses, according to a report by NOTUS. Known as the America 250 Golf Project, Trump assigned Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to take charge of the concept. The National Links Trust, whose mission statement is “positively impacting our community and changing lives through affordable and accessible municipal golf,” ultimately blanched at the Trump administration’s plans, claiming that it did not sufficiently guarantee golf would be affordable and accessible to the mass public. They also were concerned by the administration’s allegedly disproportionate focus on one of the three courses and confused by the administration’s decision to split up control of the district’s three golf courses between two entities.

“A promising beginning morphed into chaos as Trump increasingly took an interest in remodeling many of D.C.’s iconic buildings and public spaces,” NOTUS reports. After the National Links Trust expressed its dissatisfaction, the Trump administration canceled its 50-year lease with the National Park Service (which was signed in 2020) and claimed the National Links Trust owes millions in back rent to the government.

“The future of the courses — when there will be renovations, how much it will cost to golf on them, who will have access — is all now in limbo,” NOTUS reports. The golf nonprofit issued its own statement strongly contesting Trump’s claims.

“The National Links Trust is devastated by the Trump administration’s decision to terminate our 50-year lease with the National Park Service,” the National Links Trust said in a statement. “Since taking over stewardship of Rock Creek, East Potomac, and Langston courses five years ago, NLT has consistently complied with all lease obligations as we work to ensure the brightest possible future for public golf in DC.”

Trump is well-known for his interest in golf. He owns 15 golf courses in the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, and frequently plays there during his term. Sports journalist Rick Reilly, who is an expert on golf and has written about Trump’s relationship with the sport, says that Trump is notorious among caddies for cheating, stiffing club members and staff and even asking for a sea wall to protect his Irish course from global warming despite publicly denying man-made climate change. His golf courses also pose a potential conflict of interest because his attendance there while president could be construed as promoting private businesses for personal enrichment. In the first six months of his second term, Trump made 99 visits to his properties including 62 to golf courses, a 37 percent increase from his first term, according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

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