The East Potomac Golf Course could, starting Monday, undergo extensive renovations under the Trump administration’s guidance, and for some the fight to try to stop that from happening continues.

Renderings of East Potomac “reimagined” as a championship golf course and a formal memorial space were included in a document obtained by the Washington Post allegedly seeking donations that will support President Donald Trump’s plans to remake parts of D.C.’s waterfront, including East Potomac Golf Course.

The renderings depict new water features and a redesigned clubhouse. They also show the golf course occupying most of the space, with much of the park’s existing bike paths and open recreational space gone.

Mike McCartin, National Link Trust Co-Founder, says these spaces are part of why the course is so special.

“It’s a great symbiotic relationship, and it goes back to the history of why this place was made in the first place to provide active recreation not just golf but a bunch of different ways of recreational activities to the residents of D.C.,” he said.

The image also appears to include fewer than 18 holes compared to the current 36 total holes.
The news organization NOTUS reported Friday that deferred maintenance work at the course would begin Monday.

Not knowing specifics of the project, like in which capacity this space will be available for D.C. residents after the upcoming renovations, makes some regulars feel uneasy.

“Golf is a game that is played by people who have a lot of resources and access to private courses, and this was the place where anybody could play and see these incredible views and come and just really be part of D.C., so I think it’s a huge loss,” said Caroline Holt, who played at the course for over 15 years.

Features that are part of the current site, including the mini golf course and the nearby East Potomac Tennis Center, also are not visible in the image.

As part of an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, the D.C. Preservation League filed for an emergency pause Sunday to prevent the golf course from closing. The document asks a federal judge in D.C. to set an emergency status conference and to prevent the administration from undertaking any steps towards the closure.

News4 reached out to the White House for comment about the specifics of the golf course project, when the park will reopen and comment on the petition for an emergency pause. We were deferred to the Department of the Interior and are still waiting on an answer from them.

Now, who will manage the course possibly starting tomorrow or once the administration officially takes over the project? Those are questions that as of now remain unanswered. The National Link Trust Team says for now, they will be there Monday with its usual opening time of 7 a.m.

The Nationals hung around with the Brewers all afternoon yesterday, but in the end, just couldn’t get the bats going, losing game two of the series 4-1, with a Brady House first-inning fielding error, which led to 3 runs, being all the runs the Brew Crew needed. The Nats will now look to avoid a sweep this afternoon, with PJ Poulin to kick things off as an opener for Zack Littell.

There is a multitude of changes in the Nats lineup, as there often is when they go from facing a lefty to a righty, with Curtis Mead, Brady House, and Joey Wiemer all hitting the bench. In their places are Luis Garcia Jr. at first base and batting second, Jose Tena at designated hitter and batting 7th, and Jorbit Vivas at third base and batting 8th. The biggest development from today’s lineup card is Jacob Young batting 3rd, perhaps looking to put some speed on the bases for CJ Abrams to drive in.

Of the many jokes cracked by King Charles during his visit to Washington, the one recalling the definitive 18th-century Anglo-French contest for dominion over the New World was the most pointed. Speaking at a state banquet in the White House, Charles turned to Donald Trump and said: “You recently commented, Mr President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German. Dare I say that, if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French!”

Did Trump get it? Who knows? Broadly speaking, history, even their own, is not most Americans’ favourite subject. A forward-looking people, they do not dwell on the past, nor hanker after the illusory felicities of former glories. While generations of Britons still wallow in nostalgia for Spitfires, Churchill and Vera Lynn (and beating the French), Americans typically seek new metaphorical mountains to climb. Theirs is a positive outlook, on the whole. Except, under Trump, it has twisted into a revived, ugly version of US “manifest destiny” imperialism.

In his quiet, understated way, Charles had a lot to say about all that. Addressing Congress, he did not give Trump the serious tongue-lashing many in Britain (myself included) had been hoping for. Given the constitutional and political constraints, it was a ballsy performance nonetheless. Charles may have succeeded in temporarily easing US-UK frictions. But his bigger achievement was to remind Americans, ever so gently, of who they are, where they come from, and how very much better they could and should be doing.

To put it mildly, the US, led by its manic president and the Republican party, has been acting out of character for a while now. Charles’s proffered antidote was calm, balm – and perspective. He supplied a mature, knowing lens through which to view, rise above and look beyond the trials and tribulations of the Trump era. He articulated a belief in the US that Americans are in danger of losing. He spoke of unity as an essential condition of success. He stressed that what the US does matters everywhere. Charles’s subtle, much-needed history lesson may have done more than Trump ever has to make the US feel great again.

The reaction of Democrats and many Republicans in a fractured Congress was telling. Again and again, they rose together to applaud the king’s evidently sincere conviction, implicit rather than explicit, that the US will get through this, will come to its senses, will rediscover its principles, will once more aspire to act as a moral force for good – his conviction that the nightmare will end, as, history shows, nightmares always do.

Remember Magna Carta? That English charter of 1215 curbing the power of kings was a crib sheet for the US’s founding fathers and had been cited at least 160 times in US supreme court cases, Charles said. It established “the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances”. Who could miss this real-life king’s deft allusion to the importunities of the overweening pseudo-king in the White House? Democrats certainly didn’t. They stood and cheered.

Remember the 1688 bill of rights, product of the English civil war and the struggle for parliamentary sovereignty? Chunks of that text were lifted verbatim and incorporated in the 1791 US bill of rights, he noted. Here was candid royal backing for those who fear present-day US civil liberties are falling victim to recycled tyranny. Remember 9/11, a quarter of a century on? Nato countries such as Britain certainly do, Charles said. They also remember how they rallied round the US. Unspoken message: value the support and loyalty of the UK and your European allies. And reciprocate. Help Ukraine.

The king’s reminiscences about previous royal tours further served to refresh collective American historical memory – and underscore his theme: that no matter how big or strong, no single country can go it alone for long. Charles’s mother, Elizabeth II, had been a good friend to every president since Eisenhower. Such connections, he suggested, reflected the deep, abiding ties between the two peoples. The US, though a successful, independent nation, remained rooted in Britain and Europe. And, he almost said, don’t you ever forget it!

In a way, it was obvious, hackneyed, even manipulative stuff. But the enthusiastic reaction in Congress and the US media suggested Americans – their national sense of self under daily assault, their fears for the future ever more pronounced, their nerves exhausted and lives disrupted by endless Trump traumas and tantrums – badly needed to hear it. George Canning, Britain’s foreign secretary in 1826, famously “called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old”. Through Charles’s reaffirming visit, the “Old World” returned the favour.

It’s true. Politically as well as historically, Trump’s reign has thrown the US radically off-balance. Half the country seems to think it’s at war with an enemy within and ungrateful, rapacious foreign allies. The other half despairs of a president who actively undermines the democratic values and laws rebellious colonists fought to uphold 250 years ago and upon which the US constitution – and US legitimacy in the world – rests. King Charles went to Washington to save Britain’s bacon. Through his example and unassuming advice, he showed the US how to save itself.

Will Americans heed his message? Will they take history’s lessons to heart? Or will it all turn out to be a temporary blip, a fleeting moment of goodwill and good manners, a mere gap in the clouds? No sooner had Charles left Washington than Trump, predictably, began exploiting their private conversations to justify his Iranian inanities.

The Iran war – barely mentioned during this visit for fear of eruptions – is an acid test. If the Trump administration were to adopt Charles’s calm approach, stand back and dispassionately examine the history of this senseless feud, thinking back to the CIA’s anti-democratic 1953 Mossadegh coup, the installation of the Shah’s dictatorship, and the long decades of irrational vilification, mutual ostracism and sanctions that followed the 1979 revolution – including US support for Saddam’s Hussein’s 1980s war of aggression and Israel’s long, lethal shadow war – maybe it would act differently now.

Since he apparently likes the British way of doing things – and in the spirit of Charles’s visit – Trump should follow the UK’s prescriptions, not restart the war. De-escalate, pursue unconditional, good-faith negotiations, and offer an end to sanctions and diplomatic normalisation in return for Iran’s pledge to forgo nuclear weapons development and close down regional proxies. That’s the deal everyone is waiting for. It’s the only one that will stick.

If Trump, taking the long view for once, chose to do it, he could belatedly put the US back on the right side of history. And king or no kings, the world would have reason to celebrate the week Mr Windsor went to Washington.