Timothy Jacobsen

Donald, your lawyers told a federal court that the golf course redesign was still conceptual. Then you announced the design, a construction schedule, and declared that nobody’s approval was necessary. Meanwhile, your administration cut down hundreds of trees over a holiday weekend despite the court’s instructions about providing advance notice. The judge questioned your government’s conduct, so your Justice Department tried to have her removed. She rejected that motion. And now you’re calling her a “crazed lunatic” because she insists the government follow the law? That’s adorable. Here’s something you apparently missed in your extensive experience with golf courses: Public land isn’t your personal country club, and the Constitution doesn’t contain a presidential mulligan. Federal agencies have legal obligations. Courts have the authority to review whether those obligations are being met. And judges don’t lose that authority because the President throws a tantrum. You can call the renovation “World Class” until you’re blue in the face. It doesn’t make your legal obligations disappear. Donald, the rule of law doesn’t stop at the eighteenth hole. And being President doesn’t entitle you to move the goalposts, ignore the referee, and declare yourself the winner. That’s not how golf works. It’s certainly not how a constitutional republic works.