Judge puts Trump on notice as his big mouth blows up his own court case

On Tuesday, a federal judge put attorneys for President Donald Trump on notice, warning that his own words may have directly broken a court order. The case involves Trump’s effort to have the East Potomac Golf Course torn down and renovated, which the court barred pending its final decision. But a social media post by Trump has the judge demanding answers.

"Looks like [Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward] will be back in court Friday or Monday as Judge Reyes demands to know who is correct," reported Politico Senior Legal Affairs Correspondent Kyle Cheney. "Trump saying there's a definitive plan to close East Potomac golf course on Nov. 15, or DOJ, which has said there is no such plan." Cheney attached a screenshot of the judge's order, which read, "The Court takes judicial notice of President Donald J. Trump's Truth Social post at 11:37 p.m. on October 26, 2026, stating, 'We are closing the East Potomac Golf Course Site as scheduled on November 15th in order to renovate and rebuild for Competitive (with other such projects!), Safety, Modernization, and Aesthetic reasons.' Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward told the Court on October 19 that '[w]ith regard to the November 15th date... there is no plan to close the course.' The Court ORDERS Defendants to clarify, as part of their response to the Court's show-cause order from October 26, whether any plan exists to close East Potomac Golf Course on or around November 15, 2026. And, if so, how that can be reconciled with Associate AG Woodward's representation to the Court."

In other words, the government's attorney told the court there was no plan to close the course, but the president almost immediately contradicted him. As NPR elaborates, "After weeks of tense hearings and late-night court filings, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from making any further alterations to East Potomac Park, the municipal D.C. golf course that the president wants to redevelop into a championship-level venue. The long-simmering legal battle kicked into high gear in recent weeks, after the government cut down 430 trees on the golf course with less than a day's notice. That prompted a pair of lengthy court hearings that at times turned heated, with government officials repeatedly insisting that the tree-clearing was unrelated to the renovations President Trump had touted on social media. They contradicted the president's own social media posts from that very morning by saying there was no final plan for those renovations at all."

Trump actually posted about the November 15 closing date twice, claiming that the "judge has absolutely no right to hold up this very important and beautiful Project," and adding, "To have to give advanced notices to a judge who has no expertise in Golf, Architecture, Landscaping, Construction, or anything else having to do with building such a World Class Project, is not fair, appropriate, or Constitutional." For her part, Judge Ana Reyes had her own strong words for Trump, writing in her original opinion, "Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting president. And yet, here we are."