He called it Trash Island; they called it theirs

There is a particular attachment that forms between a city and its public spaces, an affection that has little to do with grandeur and everything to do with accessibility. For Jourdain Yardan, golfing at East Potomac Golf Links is a twice-weekly ritual, a reasonable-rate round on a 106-year-old course two miles from the White House. For Thomas Snow, a 70-year-old golfer, it is the only place in the entire Washington metropolitan region where eighteen holes costs $29. These are not the concerns of the wealthy or the powerful. They are the concerns of people who have found a corner of the capital that belongs to them.

President Donald Trump does not share their assessment. On Truth Social, he called the course "Trash Island," describing it as "old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use or effect," with "falling, dangerous, and disease-infested trees" and a "collapsing and hazardous seawall" . He intends to close it for fifteen months beginning in November, renovating it into a space "designed to the Highest Level of Golf and able to hold World Class Tournaments" . The plan is part of a broader effort to reshape the capital, one that includes a new White House ballroom and a 250-foot arch.

The dispute has entered the courts. The DC Preservation League and two golfers from the course filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the renovation, arguing that the public land should be protected for the communities it serves . The legal fight intensified this month when the government began large-scale tree removal on the course without notifying the court or the plaintiffs. A federal judge has ordered the administration to halt its redevelopment plans until at least October 26 . The work stoppage is temporary. The question beneath it is not.

For the golfers who spoke with the BBC, the issue is not whether the course could use improvement. Snow conceded it could use a "facelift," but described Trump's characterization as a "gross overstatement" . The course is not manicured like the private clubs the president is known for building. It offers food court-style dining rather than white tablecloth restaurants. It requires no membership. That, for its regulars, is precisely the point. "You start to clear everything out and it just starts to become an empty plot of land that you just hit golf balls on," Yardan said. "I think it gets rid of the culture of the golf course" .

The concern that lingers unspoken in these conversations is price. If the course is redesigned to host world-class tournaments, the reasonable rates that make it accessible may not survive. "Anytime you hear about big league, big golfers, that also includes big prices," Yardan said . Snow worries that people will be priced out. The course would remain public in name, but the question is whether it would remain public in practice.

There is a larger argument here about what a city's landmarks are for. East Potomac is not the National Mall or the Lincoln Memorial. It does not draw tourists or appear on postcards. But it is a landmark in the lives of the people who play there, a place where a retiree and a young professional and a beginner can share the same fairway without anyone asking whether they belong. Trump's vision would replace that with something more exclusive, more impressive, and less ordinary.

The judge's order will hold until the end of October. Beyond that, the course's future depends on a legal process that will weigh property, preservation, and public trust. For now, the golfers keep playing, twice a week, on a course the president has called trash and they call theirs.

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Sources: BBC, DC News Now, NewsBreak