Overnight, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes denied President Donald Trump's motion to remove her from overseeing the East Potomac golf course case. The ruling keeps the case — including the temporary restraining order Reyes granted after the mass tree clearing began — in the hands of the judge the administration tried to push aside.

The decision came after Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday, commenting on the work he intends to do after removing the historic cherry blossom trees — a post that triggered an emergency conversation in the case.

The government argued that Reyes showed bias against Trump and had become overly emotional after she shredded the administration for defying her court orders.

Reyes had said she trusted the government to do the right thing and follow her ruling on the golf course as the case worked its way through the system. That trust lasted only a few months before it was discovered that the Department of the Interior had torn down more than 500 trees on the small island in the middle of the Potomac River. Trump falsely claimed the trees were "diseased."

Reyes' filing (read the full order) was unsparing, taking on each accusation by the Trump administration one by one.

"For months, the Court has declined Plaintiffs' repeated requests to restrain the Government's activities at East Potomac Golf Course. Time and again, it has credited Government counsel's representations and refused to presume bad faith. The Government now seeks to disqualify the Court for bias," she wrote. "That is a serious charge. The Court answers it. With the record."

First, she addressed the administration's claim that she "unfairly questioned Trump Administration attorneys' intelligence."

"Within minutes of the first hearing in this litigation, the Court praised Government counsel for filing 'one of the more exceptional government briefs I have seen in three years on the bench.' The 'writing was spectacular' and 'the analysis was spot on.' Later to the same counsel: '[Y]ou know I have an immense amount of respect for you. I think at every single hearing I have said that I think you're doing an excellent job,'" she quoted.

The administration also claimed she displayed open hostility toward the government and was "prejudging the outcome of motions that are yet to be filed."

Reyes responded that the plaintiffs "have asked for relief nearly a dozen times," and that until recently she had ruled with deliberate caution, explaining: "I'm going to step back, because I think that federal courts should not be involved in telling the Executive or Congress what to do unless we have to because the Constitution or the laws require us to."

She then laid out what had actually unfolded over the past week as the administration moved against the course.

"So what happened? Not sudden onset bias. Instead, the Government decided to remove over 500 healthy, non-invasive trees from East Potomac Golf Course," the judge wrote. "It waited until 4:55 p.m. on the Friday of a holiday weekend to give notice that it would begin removing trees within 15 hours. It removed nearly 430 trees in one day and would have destroyed hundreds more but for a rain delay. Plaintiffs moved for a temporary restraining order. The Government opposed the motion. The Court granted it."

Reyes made clear that while she used strong words and was "furious," "district judges must sometimes take strong actions and use strong words." That final phrase, she noted, comes from court precedent — the case of Cobell v. Kempthorne, itself a product of the decades-long litigation over the Interior Department's handling of Native American trust funds.

More broadly, the administration has refused to comply with court orders in New Jersey (more than 50 times), Minnesota, Rhode Islanda funding-freeze case]()), Illinois (where a judge has demanded a DOJ misconduct probe) and on several occasions in Washington, D.C. (a deportation-flights contempt probe). No one at the Justice Department or in the administration has been held in civil or criminal contempt of court. Against that backdrop, the denial means any future clash over compliance — including any request for sanctions — would play out before the same judge the government accused of bias but could not replace.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance noted that the administration's Sunday filing left out the part showing that the judge became "furious" with the government only "after they betrayed her trust. I did not leave that out when I wrote about the case last night, explaining her anger was justified in light of the government violating court orders," she wrote on Bluesky.

Vance also implored her audience: "The Trump administration is counting on people not doing the hard work of democracy and staying up to speed on this. Prove them wrong."

Trump responded early Monday morning on Truth Social:

"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. 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 tapes have been blocked from usage by the judge. The random golfer bringing the ridiculous lawsuit has ZERO STANDING! The experts at “Interior” are allowed to do this First Class renovation “as of right.” They do not need an approval. Work is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY! The finished product will be World Class, and bring income and great prestige back to D.C. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT"

Those two positions now sit in tension: the president says the renovation "is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY!" while the case proceeds under the temporary restraining order the government opposed and lost. And with the administration's own disqualification filing flagging "motions that are yet to be filed," the dispute returns to Reyes' courtroom for its next round.

Source: Alternet