Uncertainty and a new lawsuit swirl around the National Links Trust and Washington D.C. golf courses

The effort to block the Trump administration's attempts to seize control of Washington, D.C.'s three public golf courses that are part of the National Parks Service has ramped up in the wake of a recent lawsuit.

The D.C. Preservation League, along with local golfers Dave Roberts and Alex Dickson, have filed suit against Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and presumptive National Parks Service director Jessica Bowron, seeking an injunction against president Donald Trump's administration for its recent actions at East Potomac Golf Links, a popular and historic municipal golf facility within sight of the Washington monument and other landmarks in the nation's capital. They have retained as counsel Democracy Forward, a legal organization that "advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education, and regulatory engagement," per its website.

East Potomac Park, which surrounds the course on an island in the Potomac River, was enshrined as such by Act of Congress in 1897. "This administration's recent conduct, however," the suit alleges, "threatens to gut Congress's promise and wrest the Park from the people."

The suit hones in on the appearance of mounds of dirt and debris from the recent demolition of the East Wing of the White House on East Potomac Golf Links property, which began in October of 2025. In total, the National Parks Service has deposited more than 30,000 cubic yards of material on the site. "That debris included wires, pipes, bricks, and other materials—apparently untested for pollutants or contaminants, and all within a light breeze's reach of the park's golfers," the suit's plaintiffs allege, arguing that the National Parks Service shirked obligations to test the dumped material for safety per the National Environmental Policy Act. The East Wing dated back to 1942, a time when asbestos was common in buildings. The abrupt demolition of the East Wing raised concerns among groups organized around combating asbestos exposure. The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization has also sued the administration, looking to obtain records relating to the mitigation of asbestos exposure concerns per the Freedom of Information Act.

The appearance of the East Wing demolition debris at East Potomac Park in October set off a chain events that resulted in the Trump administration terminating a long-term lease held by the National Links Trust (NLT), a non-profit group that had been working to rehabilitate East Potomac as well as other National Parks Service sites Rock Creek Park and Langston Golf Course since 2020. Under NLT oversight, annual rounds at East Potomac rose from fewer than 60,000 in 2019 to more than 120,000 in 2025.

The Trump administration terminated the NLT's lease in the final days of last year, arguing that it had failed to make sufficient progress on its plans to perform significant renovations on the three golf courses in its charge - a claim the NLT refutes, citing more than $8.5 million in capital investment across a host of projects as well as "complex Federal permitting processes," that have delayed efforts to make larger changes more swiftly.

Details have emerged surrounding the administration's plans for East Potomac Golf Links, which are the virtual opposite of what the NLT had planned for the site. The NLT has long sought a restoration of Golden Age architect Walter Travis' reversible routing, which was inspired by The Old Course at St. Andrews. Present-day architect Tom Doak had expressed interest in leading that light-touch restoration effort, which would yield an architecturally sophisticated, sustainable course that could continue to charge the low green fees that make it a popular affordable option for locals and visitors.

The Trump plan for the site is more in line with the president's own portfolio of golf courses: large in scale, heavily sculpted and expensive to play. Architect Tom Fazio, who has collaborated on multiple Trump courses, would likely obliterate East Potomac's existing historic design and rebuild a new championship-type course atop the site, potentially renaming it "Washington National Golf Course." Rather than catering to locals, it would command high green fees and also seek to host high-level professional competitive golf.

Weeks before the National Links Trust's least was terminated, it had begun to undertake the first phase of its biggest project to date: redesigning Rock Creek Park. That work was halted after the lease termination.

Even more uncertainty swirls around Langston Golf Course, a New Deal-era course built in the late 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as part of then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt's sweeping New Deal. From inception, and due to prevailing Jim Crow segregation laws, Langston was home to countless Black golfers in and around the nation's capital. It was a favorite hangout of legendary boxer Joe Louis; Lee Elder, the first Black man to play in the Masters, managed the course from 1978 to 1981.

The Trump administration's singular focus on East Potomac has left golfers wondering whether a historic course and pillar of Black sporting history may be discarded. Damian Cosby, the NLT's executive director, spoke about Langston on a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out that probed the attempted Trump takeover of D.C. golf.

Cosby, a PGA professional who has worked in municipal golf throughout his career, described Langston with affection, not just as a golf course but as a valued community space.

"We are proud to have been stewards of that history," Cosby said. "For me, as a Black PGA professional, it means a lot."

At that point in the interview, Cosby was overcome with emotion. "None of it makes any sense," he continued. "The things we care about, I don't think anyone else is going to care about, and it's upsetting to see what the future could look like for these facilities...it's sad to see it."

Golf courses have always been tremendously valuable "third places." In a time where technology and screens increasingly dominate people's lives, the sort of friendly human interaction that happens at golf courses has never been a more precious commodity or a more refreshing respite from digital malaise.

Places like Langston, Rock Creek and East Potomac prove that golf doesn't have to be expensive to add value to people's lives. It attracts passionate, progress-minded and service-oriented people and organizations like Cosby and the National Links Trust. In Washington and several other municipalities across our great country, when those people and organizations are allowed to succeed, golfers win.