The Cutest Target of Trump’s D.C. Makeover

When Donald Trump flies over Washington’s East Potomac Park, as he does on his helicopter rides to Joint Base Andrews, he sees a piece of prime waterfront real estate with serious PGA potential .

In what might as well be another episode of Extreme Makeover: Capital Edition , the president wants to convert the more than 300-acre man-made island and its affordable golf course into a championship-worthy destination.

But it turns out that there’s a lot you can’t perceive from the sky.

The park, which Trump visited for 90 minutes in June, buzzes with life.

Municipal golfers—hardly the country-club set—trek across the green.

Cyclists and runners collect miles on Ohio Drive, the road that circles the wing-shaped island.

Fishers and picnickers sit along Hains Point, the park’s tip.

Many locals fear that they could lose all of this if the president gets his golf-course glow-up.

Although it sits just south of Washington’s expanse of monuments, East Potomac Park isn’t typically a site of controversy.

Usually, its biggest moment comes each spring, when its cherry trees blossom.

But the attention was less cheerful on Saturday, when the National Park Service went on a sudden tree-chopping spree.

The agency cut down more than 400 trees along the course, prompting worries that it might be using maintenance as a cover for beginning work on Trump’s grander plans, which still face bureaucratic hurdles.

On Monday, timber was piled up on the golf course.

Among the standing trees, I counted about 75 marked with caution tape to save them from the axe.