Judge Puts Brakes on Trump’s Plans to Take Over Public Golf Course

A federal judge rebuked the Trump administration Monday morning for an alleged attempt to seize and bulldoze a public golf course in Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes responded to a request from the DC Preservation League to block the administration from taking over the East Potomac Golf Links. During the hearing, she chastised White House lawyers trying to argue that their plans for the golf course simply involve the removal of dead trees.

“We can’t have bulldozers taking down trees … and no one has come to me first,” Reyes said, adding that if the administration wants to cut down more than 10 trees, the court needs to be notified and needs to see plans.

The DC Preservation League is worried that the White House will move quickly to demolish parts of the course, pointing to how fast President Trump took over the Kennedy Center. The Preservation League’s attorney said that they didn’t trust the administration, and when Reyes asked a White House lawyer if they planned to close the golf course, the attorney said, “No closure notice has been issued ... but it’s still under consideration at this point.”

“I didn’t hear a ‘NO,’ your honor!” the plaintiff’s attorney interrupted. The White House’s lawyer tried to claim that they would follow the rules, and that they haven’t closed anything yet. But Reyes was then handed a note stating, “It looks like there were signs on the golf course that there were closures.” The administration’s counsel had no response to this, and Reyes said she was concerned about the White House making a “surprise” move on the golf course.

On Friday, NOTUS reported that the White House planned to take over the course and begin landscaping and tree clearing, with major renovations beginning later. A golf course architect, Tom Fazio, has already been chosen, an unnamed source told NOTUS. While the administration denied the report, the DC Preservation League quickly filed an emergency motion to block any construction.

It’s clear that the preservation group does not trust the administration in the slightest, and for good reason. Trump quickly demolished the East Wing of the White House without legal approval for his ballroom project, after saying publicly that he wouldn’t make large-scale changes. He has also slapped his name on several Washington buildings and government organizations without congressional or legal approval.

Whatever Trump’s plans are for this and other public golf courses in the nation’s capital, Reyes’s decision Monday may just slow him down rather than deter his plans altogether. Trump seems intent on remaking Washington in his own image regardless of what its residents or the courts say.

Most Americans don’t believe President Trump is healthy enough to do his job anymore, a new poll reveals, as questions swirl around a surprise medical visit he made over the weekend.

Recent polling from The Washington Post, ABC News, and Ipsos shows that a brutal 59 percent of Americans don’t think Trump has the mental acuity to serve as president, and 55 percent think he is not in physical shape to do so. That number is a sharp uptick from last fall, when only 45 percent of Americans believed he wasn’t in good enough physical shape to serve as president.

The poll was conducted before an odd medical visit that has raised questions even among Republicans about the president’s health and fitness.

On Saturday, Trump left his Florida golf course rather suddenly for what staff said was a dental appointment that was not previously on his presidential schedule.

“There’s been such lack of candor about the health of the president that even a visit to the dentist raises questions. The WH has a dental operatory (Pres Biden had a root canal there) so why a Sat morning visit in Florida?” wrote Jonothan Reiner, who served as former Vice President Dick Cheney’s doctor. “Maybe he just likes this dentist.”

Representative Nancy Mace also posted a mysterious “pray for President Trump” with no context, only fueling more theories.

“So, yesterday Trump is at his golf course in FL. He’s playing around, and suddenly he leaves for a dentist appointment. His press team says it was a regularly scheduled appointment but it was not on his Presidential schedule,” January 6 insurrectionist Trisha Hope posited. “Today @NancyMace posted this. What’s going on?”

“Why did the White House lie yesterday that Trump’s obvious medical emergency was a ‘scheduled’ dental appointment that was not on his schedule and caused him to suddenly leave his golf course?” conservative commentator Cheri Jacobus mused. “What IV infusion is he getting at the beginning of each month? And what’s wrong with his leg?”

Trump has always maintained that he is in peak physical condition, even though it’s clear that he’s at the very least lost a step since his first term. But the secrecy surrounding his health isn’t just alarming political insiders. It’s alarming most of America. Examples of the president’s questionable health range from Trump falling asleep in public meetings, to his unaired rants on 60 Minutes, to this mystery dental appointment.

Even aging and illness is the fault of American liberals in the MAGA worldview.

Rudy Giuliani was admitted to the hospital Sunday. His spokesperson said the former New York mayor is in “critical but stable condition.” Yet the problem, according to Donald Trump, was leftists.

In a missive on Truth Social Sunday night, the president claimed that Giuliani—his former adviser and personal attorney—was a “true warrior” and the best mayor in New York City history “BY FAR.”

“What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL—AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!” Trump continued. “They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!”

Giuliani is recovering from pneumonia, according to his spokesperson. The 81-year-old’s condition is complicated by restrictive airway disease, which he was diagnosed with after 9/11.

“He is now breathing on his own, with his family and primary medical provider at his side,” said spokesman Ted Goodman in a statement.

Giuliani was once a beloved fixture of the Big Apple, earning the title of a “mob-buster” as a vicious U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s. He later gained the moniker “America’s mayor” for seeing the city through the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But the fading star lost a lot of that adoration when he saddled his political dreams on Trump during the 2016 presidential race, closely aligning himself with the MAGA movement and its myriad political conspiracies.

Since then, Giuliani has served as a mouthpiece for Trump’s whims. He spread baseless accusations of ballot manipulation about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother-daughter duo of election workers in Georgia, in the wake of the 2020 election. That decision cost Giuliani $150 million in damages (which he tried and failed to worm his way out of), his Manhattan penthouse, and his Mercedes convertible, and almost forced him to give up his Florida condominium.

Giuliani was also indicted—and pardoned—for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia and Arizona. Over the course of 2024, the former Trump attorney unsuccessfully filed for bankruptcy, lost his accountant over his insurmountable debts, was legally disbarred, and had his WABC radio show canceled for spewing 2020 election lies.

He also begged Trump for help settling his seven-figure legal fees, though Trump reportedly refused.

Giuliani even started his own coffee brand, “Rudy Coffee,” in an effort to funnel in some extra cash to offset the enormous costs of his unwavering MAGA allegiance. He ultimately lost his bankruptcy case due to his outlandish spending habits, with the presiding New York judge branding the former city mayor a “recalcitrant debtor.”

“Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same strength now. We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani,” said Goodman.

This story has been updated.

President Donald Trump’s plot to push out Republican Indiana state senators who killed his redistricting scheme may demonstrate just how much power the president has lost.

Last week, Turning Point USA held a get-out-the-vote event for Brenda Wilson, a Trump-backed candidate challenging state Senator Greg Goode in the upcoming primary election on May 5.

A team from Turning Point USA gathered at the Fairbanks Park Amphitheater in Terre Haute, Indiana, flush with law signs and fliers, blasting a playlist called “Trump Rally,” NOTUS reported Monday.

But only four people came, three of whom were from the same family, according to the outlet.

It seems that Turning Point USA has hosted other events with higher attendance, as part of a wider effort aimed at unseating so-called RINOs and moderates, or anyone who has not supported Trump’s meddling in state elections.

Eight of the Republican legislators who voted against Trump’s congressional redistricting scheme are up for reelection in Indiana’s primary, and seven are being challenged by Trump-endorsed opponents.

In addition to funding promised from Trump’s allies in the state, including Governor Mike Braun and Senator Jim Banks, the Trump-backed challengers have invited an influx of outside spending from groups such as Club Growth for Action, which is spending $2 million across eight races.

But as Trump’s approval ratings have fallen to 37 percent nationally and roughly 49 percent in Indiana, a state he won in 2024, it’s not clear that being tied to the president, his unpopular war in Iran, and his poor economic report card won’t be a liability to candidates instead of a boost.

The U.S. military on Monday denied claims in Iranian state media that Iran bombed a U.S. Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz, shortly after President Trump announced a new plan to help guide ships through the critical waterway.

Iran’s Fars Media reported that a Navy vessel in the southeast sector of the strait was struck for “violating maritime security and navigation norms” and that the ship turned around after being hit. One Iranian official told the BBC that there was one warning shot but could not confirm if there was damage.

U.S. Central Command is denying any reports of serious damage.

“CLAIM: Iranian state media claims that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hit a U.S. warship with two missiles,” CENTCOM wrote Monday on X. “TRUTH: No U.S. Navy ships have been struck. U.S. forces are supporting Project Freedom and enforcing the naval blockade on Iranian ports.”

This comes as the U.S. begins attempts to enact Trump’s recently announced “Project Freedom”—a bid to escort merchant and allied ships through the strait while continuing to blockade Iranian vessels, something Trump is calling a “humanitarian gesture.” Iran continues to hold its own blockade of the strait, as well.