US President Donald Trump's exceptional affection for golf has once again landed on the chopping block of controversy. An ambitious plan to transform a century-old public golf course in southern Washington, D.C., into a PGA-level facility has ultimately triggered massive deforestation and the fury of a court. Last weekend, heavy machinery was mobilized, and 500 decades-old mature trees were cut down overnight—an event that vividly displays the bitter farce born of administrative overreach and clever evasion.

The incident began in June when President Trump made a direct visit to the public golf course. He announced a vision to transform this cherished community resting place with over 100 years of history into a golf course capable of hosting world-class major tournaments.

In response, environmental groups and residents immediately filed a lawsuit demanding a halt to construction, and the presiding judge explicitly ordered that the court be notified before any trees were felled. However, the National Park Service resorted to a trick to cleverly bypass this. They dumped a notice on the court just before closing time on Friday and rushed to deploy heavy machinery over the weekend to push through rapid logging.

Such behavior was a clear overreach and a surprise operation defying the authority of the court. Upon receiving the report, the judge flew into a rage, issuing a strong warning that anyone violating the logging restriction by even a fraction of a second would be immediately indicted for contempt of court. An administrative agency that should represent the public interest effectively stabbed the law in the back and neutralized procedures to cater to the tastes of the highest authority.

This deforestation incident is not a one-time hapening. It precisely mirrors a series of urban remodeling projects pursued by President Trump. Representative examples include shutting down the Kennedy Center altogether after facing setbacks in his attempt to name it after himself, or announcing a radical plan to build a triumphal arch right in the middle of downtown and deploy snipers and drones. Furthermore, the construction of a golden White House banquet hall, ambitiously pushed since early this year, is set to consume a staggering 430 billion won in government funds.

This series of processes starkly reveals the risks of a "my-way" governing style that forces through personal visions while ignoring communication and procedures. Obsession with a golf course led to bulldozing a century-old public forest overnight and resorting to unlawful behavior to bypass judicial control.

When a ruler's personal tastes and achievements take precedence over public interest and the rule of law, the price society pays is by no means small. This Washington public golf course deforestation incident will remain as a warning record of how the privatization of power undermines administrative systems and the rule of law.

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