Press Releases

Today, Representatives Don Beyer (VA-08), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), and Glenn Ivey (MD-04), along with 43 of their colleagues, demanded transparency about the Trump Administration’s new vanity project, the proposed redevelopment of East Potomac Park designed by President Trump’s handpicked architect, Tom Fazio. The letter, written to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Acting Director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron, called on the Administration to preserve the park’s historical features and affordability.

In this latest letter, the lawmakers are demanding the administration disclose the cost of the golf course’s redevelopment and how any changes would affect bike and walking paths. They also demanded the administration comply with historic preservation laws and disclose how the golf course’s pricing may change. 

“We write with strong objections to your rushed ‘redevelopment’ of East Potomac Park, as well as the lack of clear public communication as to the changes planned for a beloved historic and recreation site,” the lawmakers wrote. “Any significant construction… requires compliance with bedrock environmental and historic preservation laws, robust public consultation and review, and protection of the existing uses of the site.” 

East Potomac Park, which includes East Potomac Golf Links, lies on federal land in Washington, D.C.  The existing golf courses are well-used and popular, and hosted 130,000 rounds of golf in 2025. The courses are known for both their affordability—a tee time costs as little as $17—and their rich history and accessibility for players of all skill levels. In addition to the golf courses, East Potomac Park is also a beloved recreation site for thousands of residents in D.C., Maryland and Virginia who use the park’s biking and walking paths and picnic on scenic Hains Point. In the spring, the park hosts visitors who travel to see D.C.’s oldest stand of cherry blossoms. 

The courses became a core part of the nation’s civil rights history in 1941 when three Black golf players insisted on playing a round of golf, making East Potomac Golf Links one of the first desegregated public golf courses in the country. 

In addition to public access considerations, the lawmakers raised transparency concerns surrounding the redevelopment project’s financing. 

“A private entity called the National Garden of American Heroes Foundation has sent brochures of the redesign to prospective donors and advertised the option for these donors to remain anonymous,” the lawmakers wrote. “The only information available about this shadowy foundation is that interested donors can contact President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign finance director if they have any questions. 

The lawmakers first sounded the alarm on threats to East Potomac Park in response to the 35,000 cubic yards of toxic debris that the Trump Administration dumped on the golf courses following the illegal demolition of the White House’s East Wing. The proposed East Potomac Park redevelopment follows the Trump Administration’s pattern of unauthorized demolition and construction projects. Following the personal involvement of President Trump, the Administration has defaced other cultural and recreational spaces in the Nation's Capital, including the East Wing of the White House, the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. 

The letter is also signed by Reps. Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Joyce Beatty (OH-03), André Carson (IN-07), Sean Casten (IL-06), Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), Steve Cohen (TN-09), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Danny Davis (IL-07), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Sarah Elfreth (MD-03), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Dwight Evans (PA-03), John Garamendi (CA-08), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), Steny Hoyer (MD-05), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Henry “Hank” Johnson (GA-04), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Stephen Lynch (MA-08), April McClain Delaney (MD-06), Betty McCollum (MN-04), James McGovern (MA-02), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), Dave Min (CA-04), Jerry Nadler (NY-17), Johnny Olszewski (MD-02), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Emily Randall (WA-06), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Robert “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), Mark Takano (CA-39), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Bennie Thompson (MI-02), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), James Walkinshaw (VA-11) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12). 

Read the full text of the letter here and below:

Dear Secretary Burgum and Acting Director Bowron: 

We write with strong objections to your rushed “redevelopment” of East Potomac Park, as well as the lack of clear public communication as to the changes planned for a beloved historic and recreation site. Any significant construction at East Potomac Park, which was expressly created by Congress in 1897 to be “forever held and used as a park for the recreation and pleasure of the people,” requires compliance with bedrock environmental and historic preservation laws, robust public consultation and review, and protection of the existing uses of the site. Removing or diminishing any of those uses, including the existing affordable public golf course, the biking and running trails around the course, and the historic grove of cherry trees along Hains Point, is unacceptable and potentially illegal. We urge you to immediately abandon those efforts and protect this essential site for generations present and future.  

East Potomac Golf Links has been an indispensable public asset since 1921. The National Park Service (NPS) responded to popular demand that year to create one of the country’s first public golf courses. The three courses—Red, White and Blue—were designed or inspired by the designs of Walter Travis, who rejected Victorian-style designs favored by the rich and powerful to create links-style courses that all players could enjoy. The courses opened with rounds of golf priced at just 25 cents. This legacy of inclusive pricing continues to this day. Visitors can book a child’s tee time for just $9 and enjoy a hamburger at the Potomac Grille for under $10—an enjoyable afternoon that won’t break the bank. The courses became a core part of our national civil rights history in 1941 when three Black golf players insisted on playing a round of golf, making East Potomac Golf Links one of the first desegregated golf courses in the country. For 85 years, residents of all backgrounds in the District of Columbia and the surrounding area have enjoyed the golf course and the biking and running trails that surround it.      

This all changed on August 1, 2025, when you met with President Trump to discuss destroying the Red, White, and Blue courses and replacing them with a single “championship- style” layout designed to host professional tournaments. This recently released “Washington National Plan,” credited to Tom Fazio—who has previously designed golf courses for President Trump—would be a wholesale redevelopment of a property that has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973. To make this design a reality, the existing 36 holes, split across the Red, White and Blue courses, would need to be destroyed, trees would be cut down, and an entirely new clubhouse would likely be constructed. All of this would yield just one large course, an 18-hole course designed for professionals, and one 9-hole pitch and putt course, leaving little room for the cycling, running and picnicking activities that are equally important to the park’s character. 

On June 28, this already expansive redesign became catastrophic when President Trump toured East Potomac Golf Links and examined new renderings of a far more expansive redesign proposal than what you disclosed on social media. If the high-resolution photos of the plan clutched by the President during the tour reflect the Administration’s real intentions, the redesign would create just one 18-hole course for professionals, provide no 9-hole pitch and putt course, and completely eliminate Hains Point and the walking and biking trails surrounding the park. The Administration has not publicly released cost projections for this massive undertaking. The limited information shared about public access after the redesign includes estimates that the weekend price for local golfers could nearly double as a result of this complete transformation, even as the number of available courses to play on is cut by a third. This undermines the longstanding principles of affordability and public access which have driven East Potomac Golf Links since its founding.   

While the courses are certainly in need of significant maintenance and repair following decades of underinvestment, this work must be accomplished in compliance with the law and with respect for the historic nature of this beloved public resource. NPS itself has performed a Cultural Landscape Report on East Potomac Golf Links, determining in 2019 that the Red, White and Blue courses are “essential” to the “design integrity at East Potomac” and that the historic design reflects “an egalitarian institution within the city of Washington, D.C., as originally intended.” Furthermore, the biking and running trails circumnavigating East Potomac Park—in addition to providing crucial public access to the waterfront—are core components of the park. Hains Point is a beloved and scenic picnic area that is also critical to residents and visitors alike, who come each spring to enjoy Washington, D.C.’s cherry blossom season. 

To raise funds for the Washington National Plan, a private entity called the National Garden of American Heroes Foundation has sent brochures of the redesign to prospective donors and advertised the option for these donors to remain anonymous. The only information available about this shadowy foundation is that interested donors can contact President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign finance director if they have any questions. We have seen this hollow promise before. Previous construction efforts that President Trump has touted as privately funded have both ballooned in cost and in fact been paid for by taxpayers. 

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) requires federal agencies to assess the effects of any proposed project on “historic federal properties.” It also requires federal agencies to publicly release development plans of this level of significance and incorporate sufficient time for public comment. Instead of engaging with the public about this design as required by law, the Administration began setting plans in motion to close the existing golf courses and clear stands of trees within them in May 2026. The trees have only been spared and the course only remains open due to pending litigation.  

To learn more about your plans to redevelop the park, and how you will address our concerns about the redevelopment and its negative impact on multi-purpose recreation access, we request written answers to the following questions by no later than August 14, 2026: 

1. What is the cost of redeveloping East Potomac Golf Links?  
2. Will the beloved and heavily-used walking and biking paths and lanes through the Park be preserved? If so, will any changes be made to those paths and lanes? 
3. Will the similarly beloved and heavily-visited cherry trees within the Park be preserved? If so, are there anticipated impacts on health or access to those trees? 
4. How much more will it cost for the public to play golf at East Potomac Golf Links under the “Washington National Plan”? The similar courses that you have cited as cost models in your redesign proposal feature prices that are as much as double the current East Potomac Golf Links prices. What justifies this increase? 
5. What is the relationship between the National Garden of American Heroes Foundation and members of the Trump Administration and specifically President Trump? 
6. What are the Department’s plans to assess project compliance under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for the wholesale redevelopment of East Potomac Golf Links?
   1. If these plans move forward, what is the Department’s anticipated public comment schedule? 

We appreciate your consideration and look forward to your prompt response.