It wasn’t an actual plan, the government claimed before the court as more than 400 trees were cut down over the weekend despite Judge Ana Reyes telling the government not to take action without providing the court and plaintiffs advance warning. Then came the twit* via Truth Social. What’s a judge to do?

There was no “official” interior department regulation turning the East Potomac Golf Links, a Washington, D.C., public golf course consisting of an 18-hole and two 9-hole courses, plus a public park and memorial, into PGA championship course. After all, it was just an twinkle in Trump’s eye, according to the government’s assertions to Judge Reyes. Nothing to see here yet, they said. Trump, as he so often does, said otherwise.

It’s one thing for a judge to take note of a law. It’s another to take note of a rule or regulation. But that’s now how strong and decisive executives get things done. Laws, rules and regulations take far too long to make things happen to sate the pace of Trump’s reimagination of the nation in his grandiose image, and so he rules by twit. He announces his actions by twit, and he responds to those why doubt his overwhelming might in the same fashion.

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

Who doesn’t desperately desire “prestige,” at least as far as that word has meaning to the sort of person who believes slapping gold doodads on every piece of open wall he can is “classy”? Regardless, if the Interior Department has the authority to make this change “as of right,” then what difference does it make? And if the plaintiffs have “ZERO STANDING,” then they can’t challenge the change regardless of whether DoI has authority or not. Trump says they do and they don’t, and he says so by twit, and so the work will being “IMMEDIATELY!”

Aside: Curiously, no work has been put out to bid, as would otherwise be required by law. Then again, Trump knows people who build golf courses, just like he knows people to repair reflecting ponds, so he doesn’t need silly bids.

The attorneys for the government, on the other hand, have informed the court that none of these things are happening. There is no plan. There is no change. There is no work to being immediately. The Department of Justice lawyers, who are fortunate to receive paychecks from the government paid for by taxpayers, point to the obvious sources. There are no laws, no rules, no regulations, that would possibly enable this to happen. See, Judge? It’s not happening.

There is, of course, an argument to be made that just because Trump twits something doesn’t mean it’s actually going to happen. He twits incessantly, and quite a few of his assertions by twit neither come to pass nor reflect reality. What’s a judge to do?

Judge Reyes has order the second in command at the Department of Justice, Stanley Woodward Jr., who was born the year I was admitted to practice law, to attend a hearing scheduled for today. Judge Reyes further ordered the government to state whether it’s sticking to its story from last Friday, given that Trump undercut the government’s claims in his twit, by 8 pm last night. The government’s response is that there is no “final action,” and that it’s not reviewable as it’s akin to mowing the lawn, trimming the trees or moving paintings around the Smithsonian.

More to the point, the government’s response isn’t that it proffered to the court the government’s official position, but merely interpreted the president’s public statements, his twits. And they’re just, you know, twits. so who cares?

*Trump prefers to call his Truth Social posts “Truths.” I prefer the generic “twits.”