Donald Trump (5:28)

And they're all coming in. And people are now coming in. They're making reservations to come in. They want to be in Washington D.C. one of the things we're going to be redoing is your parks. I'm very good at grass because I have a lot of golf courses all over the place. I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world. And we're going to be regressing all of your parks, all brand new sprinkler systems, the best that you can buy, just like Augusta. Don't. It'll look like Augusta. It'll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club. That's even better. But we're going to look, we're going to have all brand new, beautiful grass. You know, like everything else, grass has a life. Do you know that? Grass has a life. You know, we have a life and grass has a life. And the grass here died about 40 years ago. So we're going to be rebuilding all of your parks and it's going to happen fast. It's going to go up like a miracle.

Michael (6:18)

I want to give you a sense because we often talk about federal judges at the district court level and how they're using creativity, their experience, the tools in their tool bag, the, the inherent authority that they have to address a defiant, out of control Trump administration who, beyond testing the limits, is trying to destroy all of the guardrails around the separation of powers. And for Donald Trump, Bob the Builder, he sees, you can see no greater glory than to completely change the face of Washington DC's public land owned by Congress for the, for the, for the good of the public. He wants to scar and deface it all. He wants to redevelop the National Mall, the reflecting pool. He wants to put up his own mega arch modeled after the Arc de Triomphe. He wants to put up a park of 250 statutes. Lord knows who's going to be picking those statues. He wants to, he's already put his name up on the Kennedy center, which he's about to demolish. He knocked over on purpose in the middle of the night without permits or permission. The East Wing, dedicated to white to White House first ladies. He's done all of that. And then judges have to try to play catch up. But I think Judge Reyes, who we have followed closely on Legal af, took a page not only from her own experience, but watching how Judge Leon has managed the ballroom issue. He eventually issued an injunction many months later to stop the ballroom. Some people may quibble about it being too late, but you know, that injunction is what's up on appeal. So she's not ready to be as she said Parks and Rec and be Amy Poehler just yet, but shy but wagged her finger about what she's willing to do and when she's willing to do it once properly notified. Let me show you a clip. Ada Reyes Judge Reyes was recently on Legal AF on Speak up for Justice, a group of judges, current and former, who talk about being a judge in the era of Donald Trump. Here's Judge Reyes.

Judge Anna Reyes (8:41)

Yeah, I'll just say that my all time favorite social media post was I had issued a decision that favored the Trump administration and someone wrote it's a great decision but everything's become so political these days. I know that if President Biden had appointed the judge, it would have been a different decision. And someone responded, president Biden appointed the judge. And I think, you know, when we have all these sort of back and forth, I've, I've issued decisions in favor of the administration. I've issued decisions that did not favor the administration. And again, what we do is look at what's in front of us and try to do the best that we can. I issued some, a different set of decisions, a different set of decisions that favored the Trump administration. And a number of people wrote and said, oh, she's just a Trump. She's just, she's just a Trumper. She just like likes President Trump. She's a Trump appointee and you know, can't be trusted to do anything. And I sit with four other judges who are appointed by President Trump and they are phenomenal judges and they are respected jurists and they take their job seriously. They're terrific human beings. I love working with them.

Michael (9:57)

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It's been a supportive addition to my daily wellness routine experience the most trusted magnesium for purity, potency and performance. Plus it's non gmo, vegan and gluten free, making it a choice you can feel good about. Go to qualialife.com legalaf for 50% off. And here's a bonus. Use the code legal AF for an additional 15% off your order. That's Q U A L I a life.com/legal af and then use code legal af. Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. So what's going to happen here? Let me just read to you from the There's a kind of a dirty little secret that connects the ballroom to this attempted redevelopment of this golf course in Donald Trump's image. And that is that apparently there's something when you do construction called fill. It is supposed to be clean dirt that is dumped onto a site in order to either fix a leveling problem with the site, like the site needs more dirt, more compact dirt in order to support a structure. On top of it, they want to extend the site. They need to fill in something like maybe a pond or something. So they need. You often need fill when you're doing a construction project. There's a hole here, an excavation hole there, a pond here. There's too little dirt over here. So there's companies that are excavation companies, gravel and fill companies, and they're in this business and they take it from pits and different, different locations. Sometimes it's taken from a construction site. Apparently fill that represents the debris from the East Wing construction, demolition has been poured onto this golf course. But as noted by Democracy Forward in their filing in the ballroom case, they said that the dirt was not clean from the ballroom underneath the ballroom, that after the demolition it was filled with asbestos and arsenic and lead. Oh my. Let's put that all into the golf course, shall we? So there's also now an environmental remediation problem and a violation of environmental law by the Trump administration that's been suggested in the filings. This is what they say, the Democracy Forward group in their filing. And I'm going to have as a programming note, tomorrow afternoon, there's going to I'm going to have an interview up and running on Legal, a YouTube channel of Sky Perryman of Democracy Forward, whose group brought this particular lawsuit. They say on page one that from the moment plaintiffs filed the lawsuit, defendants insisted that any plan to renovate the East Potomac Golf Course, known as the Langston Golf Course, was in its infancy, little more than office chatter. As late as April 30, defendants meaning the Trump side maintained in A sworn declaration that the management of the East Potomac golf Course is unchanged and no formal decision has been made regarding the nature and scope of renovations. 24 hours later on Friday evening, May 1st, the DC news site notice we'll put it up here reported that the Trump administration will close the golf course at the end of the day on Sunday and begin construction, including tree clearing on Monday, in line with the National Park Service's preapproved plans. It confirmed the major renovations with a golf course architect Tom Fazio. Donald Trump has used in other major golf courses. In mere hours, then defendants supposedly hypothetical concepts will turn into bulldozers. Much as the White House East Wing was demolished without advanced notice or apparent approval. Washington Post, they say ran a story on a notice reporting. Washington Post reported on May 1 that there was private fundraising efforts to destroy the East Potomac and to build on its ruins a championship golf course. They say trust is no longer an option, as it did with the East Wing. The administration has chosen arbitrariness over aiding the law. And then they go through the entire history of this park on the National Mall and Talk about the 37,000 cubic yards of what the Trump administration has told the public is clean fill, which looks like it could be contaminated with lead, arsenic, benzo pyrene and asbestos. So what is the judge going to do to do next? Okay, I think she's going to put it back on the parties to come back to her. If she sees demolition, construction, further termination of the lease, she's ready to act. I wanted to put this on your radar right now because this is a line in the sand or a sand trap about Trump trying to take over public land. This is what he's left with. You know, with polling numbers that are now in the historically low. Pardon me, With polling numbers that are now in the historically low 30s and even 20s percents. Trump, knowing that he's going to lose and lose badly at the midterms, is now left with a going out of business sale. Except it runs the other way with him. It's how much can he steal, remake, reshape, demolish, put his name on? You know, he has it in his mind that the entire National Mall is his and that he wants to deface it with his imagery and idolatry before he gets out of office. And people are who don't want to anger Donald Trump are giving him the means and the methods to do it. And it's up to federal courts to stop it. This is the People's House, the People's Park, District of Columbia is for the people, not the current occupant of the White House. We'll continue to follow it. Take a minute, help us get to 1.2 million subscribers. With your help, we'll get there before May is over on Legal AF YouTube channel. Until my next report, this is Michael

Legal AF Host (17:43)

can't get your fill of Legal af.

Michael (17:44)

Me neither.

Legal AF Host (17:45)

That's why we formed the Legal AF sub stack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called Wait for It Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AOF are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Wear Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe

Donald Trump (18:19)

hey

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Michael (18:46)

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