Donald Trump Humiliated as Protesters Rally Against His Golf Course Dream

Kylie Cooper / REUTERS Donald Trump’s ambitious plans for a historic golf course have hit an early obstacle: the people who actually use the park .

In late July, as part of his ongoing D.C. makeover, the president announced his plans to overhaul the East Potomac Golf Links on Hains Point, saying work would begin on Sept.

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Trees have been felled around the course, The Washington Post reports, but now grassroots activist groups Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA) and Save East Po are working to halt the president’s grand plans for the public golf courses, which opened more than 100 years ago.

NOTUS reports that the coalition is focused on protecting the area and came out over the weekend wearing t-shirts reading “Save Hains Point” and “Fore the People, Not the President.” “We plan to keep protesting until the work is stopped and/or the plans are shared,” WABA’s executive director Elizabeth Kiker told the Daily Beast.

Workers removed six trees on Saturday, with more pulled out earlier, but officials have yet to confirm whether the course will close or what the work will look like.

“We have been told by the National Park Service [that] work will not start tomorrow,” Kiker said.

“We are still watching very carefully.” The Post reports that an unofficial count puts the total number of trees removed so far at around 60.

The Department of the Interior, which is responsible for the National Park Service, said in a statement acquired by NOTUS and the Post that the felling of the trees was simply regular upkeep, “with selective removal of hazard trees, non-native invasive trees, and declining and dying trees that cannot be brought back to good health through any degree of intervention.

The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

“Trees throughout the park are regularly monitored for potential safety impacts to visitors, and when a tree is determined to be dying, declining, or hazardous, our arborists may make the decision to remove it.” The protesters, however, aren’t buying it.

“Maybe they were ailing, but boy they sure didn’t look like it,” Kiker told NOTUS.

She added that it appeared possible it could be “the beginning of them tearing this entire space out and building it to be something that is not for the public.” A lawsuit has been filed by the DC Preservation League and two local golfers to challenge the plans, but it is currently stalled; there is no clear indication that the government’s plans have been shared in the proceedings.

In early July, Joe Biden-appointed District Judge Ana Reyes refused to block the work, but also refused to throw out the suit.