Trump attacks judge who rejected DOJ’s push to disqualify her from DC golf course litigation
Golfers walk by piles of logs and debris on the course at East Potomac Golf Links on Oct. 18, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump is blasting the federal judge overseeing litigation involving the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul renovations at a major public Washington, D.C., golf course, after she rejected an effort overnight from the Justice Department to disqualify her from continuing to preside over the case.
Last week, D.C. District Judge Ana Reyes erupted at attorneys for the government after the Interior Department abruptly removed more than 500 trees from East Potomac golf course despite her demanding the administration alert her in advance if it planned any significant alterations to the course given ongoing litigation.
“The United States Department of Interior wants to take a terrible and very unsafe golf course, and make it into a great, safe, and prestigious golf course,” Trump wrote in the post on his social media platform Monday morning. “They have an absolute right to do so. It’s as simple as that! The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane?”
The golf course has been the subject of litigation brought by the D.C. Preservation League in response to Trump’s efforts to turn it into a course that could host professional tournaments.
Overnight, Reyes denied a motion from the Justice Department’s No. 3-ranked official Stanley Woodward seeking her recusal from the case where he had argued she harbored a clear political bias against the Trump administration.
“It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion,” Reyes said in her response. “But it is much harder to meet the demanding legal standard against a full record. By any objective measure, the Government fails to meet the standard for recusal. And the Court does not, on its review, conclude it is mandatory.”
An evidentiary hearing is set for Monday morning where Reyes has ordered Woodward to appear after Trump announced in a Sunday social media post that full-scale renovations of East Potomac would begin on Nov. 15.
On Sunday, Reyes asked for the government to clarify whether its previous comments to her that no “final agency action” setting out a renovation schedule for the course had been formalized.
Woodward responded late Sunday that Trump’s post did not contradict the government’s position.
“Defendants maintain that there is no final agency action here,” Woodward said. “First, the plan is not final because the Park Service has not completed its review and the details of the proposal are subject to change during the review process. Second, any redesign of the golf course is not ‘agency action’ to begin with because it is not the kind of regulation that constitutes a ‘rule, order, license, sanction, [or] relief’ under the [Administrative Procedure Act].”
Reyes has pushed for two top Trump administration officials to testify at Monday’s hearing, including an appointee at the Interior Department overseeing many of Trump’s “beautification” projects for D.C. The Trump administration is expected to vigorously oppose having those officials testify.
Reyes has said she wants answers about whether the administration deliberately moved under cover of a holiday weekend to begin removing hundreds of trees at East Potomac despite her repeated demands that the administration not do so without giving her advance notice.
The government testified that the plan to cut down trees was part of a plan put in place in 2019 to remove dead, dying and hazardous trees around the golf course.
President Donald Trump looks to the press as he disembarks from Marine One at the White House on Oct. 2, 2026, in Washington, D.C. President Trump kicked off a 32-day campaign blitz ahead of the midterm elections in Texas and Oklahoma. (Finn Gomez/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump warned Republicans that Texas and Michigan are among the states the party is “worried about” ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, while speaking to voters in Oklahoma on Thursday.
Fresh off an event in Texas, Trump told a crowd in the reliably Republican state that he was not concerned about Oklahoma but that Republicans needed to turn out voters in other states.
“I feel a little foolish, you know. I’m saying, ‘go out and vote, go out and vote.’ You’re gonna, they’re gonna win in the last half, but still go out and vote,” Trump said. “But we’re not worried about them. We’re worried about Michigan. We’re worried about Texas. We’re worried about a few states.”
Trump later said Republicans need to get the word out about the midterms, citing what he described as 35 to 40 races that the party is concerned about.
“But we have to get the word out because we have to win in those 35. Maybe you could even say 40 places, 40 races,” Trump said. “You have many, you have hundreds of races, but it’s all about 40.”
Trump also again urged supporters to imagine that he himself was on the ballot.
“So you have to pretend I’m on the ticket and turn out for a midterm victory that’s really too big to rig,” Trump said.
Trump sought to rally Republicans by attacking Democrats over inflation and immigration, repeating claims about the number and backgrounds of migrants who entered the country during the Biden administration.
Trump has repeatedly made claims about millions of migrants entering the U.S. from prisons and mental institutions, but those claims have been disputed and are not supported by evidence showing that foreign governments emptied prisons or institutions and sent those people to the United States.
The president also said his administration was running the country well but criticized Republicans for what he called poor “public relations.”
President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy alongside the NATO leaders summit at the Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(ANKARA, Turkey) — President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air defense systems.
“One of the things we’re going to be talking about is, you’ll — we’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool, right?” Trump told Zelenskyy during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
“This way he can’t complain that we’re not giving him enough. I said, ‘Make them yourself,'” Trump added.
Trump said the company that manufactures Patriot systems hasn’t been informed yet, but “that’ll work out all right.”
But when asked whether Trump would be willing to provide Patriot interceptors to Ukraine up front while production gets into place, the president said the U.S. didn’t have that many missiles.
“We have Patriots, but we don’t have that many. We need them for ourselves, too,” he said.
The meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in Ankara came as expenditures of U.S. Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles in Ukraine and the Middle East have dramatically outpaced current production capabilities, resulting in a critical global shortage as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on.
“We need to find a way to get as quick as possible, as much as possible, missiles for Patriot systems. This is the most important thing,” Zelenskyy said at a defense industry forum at the alliance’s annual summit on Tuesday.
Russia has sought to exploit this shortfall by launching concentrated bombardments of ballistic missiles and drone swarms at Ukrainian targets, overwhelming the country’s defenses and resulting in scores of civilian deaths.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy praised the U.S. for its support throughout the war.
“Mr. President, thank you very much for this meeting. And we’re thankful, as always, to your support, American support, bipartisan support,” he said.
Russia’s ‘last major advantage’
In an address to members of the NATO alliance on Tuesday, Zelenskyy stressed the critical nature of the shortage and argued it was time for Europe to produce its own systems to counter Russian ballistic missiles, calling the rocket-powered missiles Moscow’s “last major advantage.”
“We all value the Patriot system. It’s an excellent system,” he said. “But today’s wars have shown current Patriot production is not enough to meet the growing demand for protection against ballistic missiles. That is a fact.”
For his part, Trump presented a rosier outlook — asserting that an end to the conflict in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth year, could be on the horizon.
“I think we’re getting much closer than people realize, and President Putin wants it to end,” Trump said on Monday. “And President Zelenskyy actually wants it to end now.”
Trump also downplayed the impact of the war in Ukraine on Tuesday, saying “it doesn’t affect us” and depicting the conflict as a European issue. Trump had promised to end the war on Day 1 in office — a pledge he later said was hyperbolic.
Trump’s comments come amid Russian escalation in recent days. On Monday, Russian strikes targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv, according to Russia’s defense ministry.
Zelenskyy has been warning the Trump administration about the crucial depletion of interceptor missiles for several weeks. He is also pressing the U.S. to expedite a license that would allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot batteries and interceptors domestically.
A strained relationship
The bilateral meeting tested the strength of Trump and Zelenskyy’s sometimes-rocky relationship at a time when Ukraine is facing new vulnerabilities on the battlefield and diplomacy with Russia has largely stalled.
Trump, on Wednesday, described Zelenskyy as a “difficult character,” but said they have a good relationship.
The leader’s first meeting of Trump’s second term — a February 2025 conversation in the Oval Office — devolved into a shouting match after Trump expressed skepticism about Ukraine’s position in the conflict and called for more gratitude from Zelenskyy for U.S. support.
But Trump appeared to grow more sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause over the past year as repeated efforts to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table fell flat.
A watershed moment came last July when, after repeatedly pausing military aid to Ukraine, Trump agreed to supply weapons to Ukraine if they were purchased from the U.S. by NATO allies.
And there have been signs over the past month that Trump is reengaging in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine and once again eager to coordinate a deal between Zelenskyy and Putin.
During their bilateral meeting, Trump said he spoke with Putin about the Russian president’s desire to set up a meeting in Moscow, though Zelenskyy wouldn’t commit to such a meeting.
Trump held calls with Zelenskyy and Putin over the weekend as both leaders congratulated the president on the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence.
It’s unclear how substantive the conversations were, though a Kremlin aide said that Trump spoke to Putin for 90 minutes and again offered to help end the war. Zelenskyy said he had “a very good call” with Trump and conveyed there was a “real prospect” for peace.
Trump last met with Zelenskyy at the G7 summit in June, where he, at times, appeared friendly to Ukraine’s cause — describing Russia as the “offensive” party in the conflict and saying he was “going to do whatever” he could to strike a deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron — the host of the G7 summit — said after the meeting that he was optimistic about Trump’s support for Ukraine, claiming he observed “a real change in comparison to recent months” in his attitude.
The Kennedy Center on Sept. 2, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Finn Gomez/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — One month after the board of the Kennedy Center voted to add President Donald Trump’s name to the historic building, a judge has blocked the leadership of the performing arts center from adding a tribute to Trump on the facade of the building.
The ruling came less than an hour before the board was scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider whether to close the center indefinitely.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, following a conference Tuesday morning, issued a written order blocking the attempt to add Trump’s name to the building, concluding it violated a previous court order and congressional statute.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted,” Cooper wrote.
Judge Cooper previously blocked Trump from renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, but the board voted last month to add Trump’s name to the building nonetheless, in order to recognize him as the person who “renovated and restored” the iconic structure.
“Linguistic gymnastics cannot extricate the Kennedy Center’s Board from an operative judicial order or the governing statute it was designed to enforce,” Cooper wrote in Tuesday’s ruling.
Judge Cooper’s ruling blocks the Trump administration from adding Trump’s name to the building — along the lines of “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” — as well as renaming the site of the center “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” The judge did not decide about another proposal to say the Kennedy Center is “endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” because the money has not yet been raised for the fund.
Cooper also pushed back on the assertion that the future of the Kennedy Center relies on Trump’s fundraising. He noted that Congress also already appropriated $257 million for the center’s renovation, and suggested that the president’s allies manufactured the Kennedy Center’s financial problems.
“The renaming of the Center coincided with declines in revenue and contributions, as artists cancelled performances, the Washington National Opera ended its 50-year residency, and ticket sales and viewership of the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast dropped precipitously,” Cooper wrote.
Judge Cooper also said that the Kennedy Center has failed to provide any evidence to demonstrate that “current or future donations hinge on President Trump’s name being on the building.”
“The Court may not license a violation of those authorities under threat that some unidentified donors will withhold their largesse if the Board is not allowed to have its way. It can even less reward a decision by Board members, including the Chair, to curb the Center’s fundraising efforts because they cannot abide statutory restrictions on displaying his name,” the ruling said. “Predictions of future actions by the Board in response to being told no therefore cannot concern the Court.”
The Board of Trustees was scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon, though the Trump administration overnight said the meeting would be “focused exclusively on the necessary closure” of the center, and not on additional ways to honor President Trump. Trustees were expected to vote on a measure declaring that the Kennedy Center’s main building is “unsafe for continued occupancy” and must be closed for a two-year renovation.
Kennedy Center leadership had previously argued that adding the president’s name to the structure would be necessary to save the center from “certain fiscal collapse within weeks.”
“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” said a resolution initially scheduled to be introduced today before it was delayed for a future meeting.
In their late-night court filing, Justice Department lawyers included an email sent to the board at 7 p.m. Monday by Kennedy Center official Joe LaFauci, indicating that a separate draft resolution proposing ten new ways to honor Trump would not be considered, and that the board “stands by” its earlier vote to recognize the president.
LaFauci in his email said the update to Tuesday’s agenda was due “to the recently exacerbated structural emergencies” at the center, the court filing said.
Late on Monday night, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick separately posted security video of a partial ceiling collapse that occurred during a rainstorm earlier this month. The video shows a chunk of debris crashing onto an empty red carpet.
“If a performance had been underway, patrons could have been killed,” Lutnick said in his post on social media. “People cannot be allowed to go into this building any longer.”
The center voted in December to add Trump’s name on the outside of the building before a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, ordered its removal in May.
The board voted 23-3 last month on a resolution to close the facility for two years as part of a $285 million renovation plan, according to a court filing. The board, members of which were largely appointed by Trump, also voted to add Trump’s name back onto the Kennedy Center building as many as two more times, according to the filing.
While Congress already appropriated $257 million for the project, the board has argued that Trump would raise another $100 million for the center.
The board as it voted last month said it would re-add Trump’s name to the building as the man who “renovated and restored” the center, adding, if a fundraising goal is hit, that it had been endowed by the “Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
But Cooper is currently weighing whether that would violate a statute prohibiting additional memorials at D.C.’s only memorial to former President John F. Kennedy. Cooper is set to hold a 10 a.m. ET scheduling conference on the future plans for the center and the board is preparing to meet privately at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Trustees are expected to vote on Tuesday afternoon on a measure declaring the Kennedy Center’s main building “unsafe for continued occupancy,” and ordering that it be “closed to patrons forthwith.”
Cooper is also positioned to eventually decide whether the board can move forward with its latest plans to close the center, plans that have taken on new urgency following the ceiling collapse and the new claim of center officials that the entity is quickly running out of money to remain operational.
An attorney for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who has filed a lawsuit challenging the planned closure and renaming, praised the decision not to move forward with another resolution honoring the president.
“Trump & cronies back down on HALF of the crazy,” lawyer Norm Eisen wrote on social media on Tuesday. But Eisen added that the plan to immediately close the center amounts to “foolishness” that he said Beatty’s legal team will fight.
Programming at the Kennedy Center, which normally funds its operations, effectively ended in early July. Ticket sales had reportedly been dropping off for months prior, following the board’s vote last December to rename the facility. Cooper ruled that move unlawful in May.
Despite Congress-approve funding that’s already on the table, center officials last weekend again underscored the need to honor Trump so that he might be enticed to lead additional efforts at raising money and oversee the renovation.
“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” read the text of a draft resolution that is — according to LaFauci — no longer up for consideration today.
