Trump's Next Big Development Project May Be D.C.'s Golf Courses

The White House is laying the groundwork to take over three municipally run golf courses around Washington, D.C., to spearhead their redevelopment. 

President Donald Trump’s administration issued a notice of default to the nonprofit that manages the three golf courses, a move that could put the properties under federal control by the end of the year. 

The citation followed an August meeting where Trump convened several advisers to review the future of the golf courses, The Wall Street Journal first reported Friday. The three properties, all of which are on the National Register of Historic Places, are being operated through a ground lease by National Links Trust.

The nonprofit signed a 50-year lease with the National Parks Service in 2020 promising to renovate the courses while keeping them affordable. The White House says the operators are in breach of the contract because they’re not moving fast enough to repair the courses.

Control of the courses will revert back to the Trump administration if National Links Trust doesn't address the alleged violations — which aren’t specifically listed in the citation, according to the Washington Post — by the end of the month. 

Conversations between the Trump administration and National Links Trust are ongoing, but it appears the White House is looking to push the nonprofit out of the redevelopment project. 

“I think what we’re looking to do is just build something different, and build them in government,” Trump told the WSJ.

The Interior Department issued the formal default notice, and Secretary Doug Burgum told the WSJ through a speakerphone in the Oval Office that the courses were “in total disrepair.” 

National Links Trust told the WSJ that it disagrees with the characterization the company is in default of its lease terms and that it looks forward to working with the administration to improve the properties. 

National Links Trust recently presented Trump with a proposal titled “Make DC Golf Great Again” to try to bring the administration into the redevelopment process through an oversight board.

The nonprofit operates the Rock Creek Park Golf — where extensive renovations are underway after a five-year review and permitting process — Langston Golf Course & Driving Range and East Potomac Golf Links, a course just south of the White House that has drawn much of the administration's focus.

The Trump Organization, the president’s real estate business, has a portfolio of more than a dozen golf courses from Florida to Scotland and has signed a string of deals to develop other global projects this year. 

Trump’s official development project as president, the destruction of the White House East Wing and construction of an expansive ballroom, could help lay the literal foundation for the golf course redevelopment. 

Truckloads of dirt from the demolition are being dumped at the East Potomac Golf Links at Burgum’s suggestion because the site would need to be filled in to get above the Potomac River flood plain as part of any redevelopment.