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Is Trump admin cutting down one (or more) DC cherry trees to make way for golf course?

The rumor spread amid plans to renovate the East Potomac Park golf course, where some of the capital's oldest cherry trees are located.

Published July 9, 2026

Image courtesy of Danny Navarro via Wikimedia

In July 2026, social media users claimed U.S. President Donald Trump's administration was looking to cut down Washington, D.C.'s, oldest cherry blossom tree, or trees, to build a new Trump golf course.

The claim is based on reporting by the Washington Post , in which the newspaper published a photograph of someone accompanying Trump as he toured East Potomac Golf Links in D.C., holding a rendering of potential renovations to the course and the greater East Potomac Park. A grove of cherry trees on the current golf course, which are the only trees believed to be from Tokyo's original 1910 gift to the U.S. capital, are not included in that rendering.

This rendering differs from a redesign that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum previously released , which appears to keep the historic cherry blossoms despite the renovations.

Snopes contacted the U.S. Department of the Interior for confirmation over which design is currently planned for the renovation, and to ask if any designs have been selected as the final plan. Until we receive clarification, Snopes is leaving this claim unrated.

In early July 2026, social media users expressed concern that Washington, D.C.'s, oldest cherry tree, or trees, were under threat due to a Trump administration project.

For example, one X account ( archived ) wrote, "The Trump administration is planning to cut down DC's oldest cherry tree to make way for a new Trump golf course."

A popular Facebook user ( archived ) made the same claim, while other X users said President Donald Trump's administration wants to cut down the capital's "oldest grove of cherry trees" ( archived , archived ).

Snopes readers also searched our site for information about the rumor, while others sent emails asking if the president wanted to remove cherry trees in D.C. to build a golf course.

The claim refers to the Trump administration's effort to renovate the preexisting public golf course at East Potomac Park in the nation's capital. The rumor is based on reporting from the Washington Post . The newspaper highlighted photos of Trump touring the course on June 28, one of which showed someone in the president's entourage holding a rendering of a proposed redesign of the course. That rendering does not include a historic grove of cherry blossoms that are present, as of this writing, on the grounds of the golf course.

Snopes contacted the Department of the Interior, which is overseeing the potential renovation project, to ask if it had recently finalized plans for the course's designs and if the rendering is a finalized design. Until we receive more information, we are leaving this claim unrated.

We've broken down what we can confirm about the claim.

Earlier in 2026, the Trump administration and DOI Secretary Doug Burgum began working on plans to convert East Potomac Golf Links into a championship-style golf course suitable for professional tournaments, according to a lawsuit attempting to stop the Trump administration's renovations.

Congress declared Potomac Park a public park in 1897. The act says the park would be "forever held and used as a park for the recreation and pleasure of the people."

Among the park's amenities is a public golf course called the East Potomac Golf Links , which consists of two 9-hole courses, one 18-hole course and a mini golf course. It is also, according to the course's webpage, home to the "nation's first Cherry Blossoms."

In the early 1900s, Tokyo sent former President William Howard Taft's administration a gift of local cherry trees . The first gift, which arrived in 1910 , was infested with bugs and disease. All of those trees were burned, except for "about a dozen" that were saved for further study. Most of the trees that now exist in the capital, including the many that line the bicycle loop in East Potomac Park , came later, beginning with another gift in 1912.

But based on the available evidence, the National Park Service believes that a grove of trees on one of the 9-hole East Potomac golf courses are the dozen from 1910 that were saved for study.

An NPS trail map numbering cherry blossom viewing locations, spots the trees at a location on the northeastern part of the golf course (see the "2" in the red triangle). A small grove of what appear to be cherry trees can be seen at approximately the same location on Google Maps' satellite view.

Trump administration renovation plans

In May 2026, Burgum posted to X ( archived ) a renovation design for the East Potomac Golf Links made by Fazio Design , a golf course design company that Trump has worked with for previous tournament-level golf courses. That design appears to preserve the same grove of trees, the 1910 cherry tree grove, identified in the paragraph above (see the yellow circle below ).

That design also appears to preserve the bike loop and the cherry trees that line it, as well as the picnic space area at the tip of the island that the park is built on.

In late June, the Washington Post published a story drawing attention to a different renovation design photographed in the hand of someone accompanying Trump on a tour of East Potomac Golf Links. The newspaper credited the picture to Associated Press . Reputable image repository Getty Images has a similar photograph showing the same rendering. Both pictures are dated June 28.

That photographed rendering shows a more expansive golf course than the Fazio Design course in Burgum's X post, one that covers the entire park with seemingly no room for any of its other current (at the time of publication) features.

The cherry blossom grove from 1910 does not appear to be in the rendering photographed on June 28.

On July 6 , the judge presiding over the lawsuit seeking to stop the renovation ordered the Trump administration to respond to the following question by July 17: "Who created the conceptual renderings reviewed at that visit, and who currently possesses or maintains those renderings?"

The Washington Post reported that, at the July 2 court hearing prior to the order, a Trump administration attorney told the judge that the government had not yet concluded whether it would renovate the golf course despite Trump saying such plans are moving forwar d.

East Potomac Park and its golf course have both been subjected to and damaged by flooding for years. In 2015, American University-owned WAMU radio station reported on the poor condition of East Potomac Park, including the crumbling of the seawall that was designed to prevent flooding.

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Burgum, Secretary Doug. "Excited to Unveil the Design for the East Potomac Golf Links Renovation from Fazio Design. Like Iconic Public Courses of Bethpage Black & Torrey Pines, East Potomac Will Offer Locals—of the National Capital Region—Championship-Quality Golf at Affordable, Highly Discounted Https://T.Co/foLZAAcsj3." X (Formerly Twitter) , 14 May 2026, https://x.com/secretaryburgum/status/2054934836771488181?s=20. Accessed 6 July 2026.

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Our Story . https://www.trumpgolf.com/Default.aspx?p=dynamicmodule&pageid=35. Accessed 8 July 2026.

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Emery Winter is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and previously worked for TEGNA'S VERIFY national fact-checking team. They enjoy sports and video games.

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