Trump plan will destroy DC's 'oldest grove of cherry trees' for golf practice: report

Trump’s Golf Course, and the Quiet Theft of Public LandThe Reported PlanThe Washington Post says Donald Trump’s East Potomac Golf Links redevelopment would erase Washington’s oldest grove of cherry trees, the last survivors of Japan’s 1910 gift, to make room for a practice facility. The plans shown in photos from Trump’s Sunday tour reportedly go far beyond what the government had said publicly, and the grove does not appear in the plans. A federal court hearing is set for Thursday.Who Actually Has PowerThis is not a mystery story. The institutional power sits with the president, the White House, and the federal machinery that controls the land. The people describing the trees as “beloved” or “deeply concerning” do not have bulldozers, permitting authority, or control over the project. Trump does. His administration does. That is the point the reporting makes plain while the public language tries to blur it.The SmokescreenThe White House spokeswoman calls the golf course “decrepit” and dresses redevelopment up as restoration of “glamour and prestige.” That is branding, not governance. It reframes a public landscape as a neglect case that justifies private vanity. The move is familiar: name the project as improvement, then treat the destruction of historic public space as an accidental side effect. The reported omission of the cherry grove from the plans is not a small drafting error. If the plans are accurate, it is how you launder intent.A Familiar PatternThe controversy fits a larger Trump pattern the source flags directly: pushing projects through while bypassing historic review, then acting as though critics are sentimental obstacles to progress. The proposed 250-foot arch near Arlington National Cemetery shows the same instinct. Trump does not simply build on public land; he tries to overwrite its meaning, replacing memorial space with spectacle and calling that prestige. That is not misunderstanding. It is an attempt to dominate the landscape politically and symbolically.What Gets BlamedNotice the shape of the excuses. The burden is pushed onto preservationists, park users, and the language of “decrepit” infrastructure, while the actual decision-maker hides behind aesthetic uplift. The National Parks Conservation Association warns about public access and protected landscapes, but the real issue is not access alone. It is that a president is using state power to convert shared civic ground into a personal brand platform, then asking everyone else to pretend that is neutral development.The Larger LessonThis is how institutional cowardice works in public. Harm is announced as renewal, erasure is described as management, and the people with power are recast as caretakers. The cherry trees matter because they are old, visible, and impossible to spin away forever. But the deeper issue is the governing method on display: take public space, strip out its memory, and call the result progress. Get full access to Systemic Error at paulstsmith.substack.com/subscribe