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Why is the White House carting dirt to a golf course? It’s a D.C. mystery

By: Alan Bastable
October 28, 2025


Dirt by way of a White House construction project has been accumulating at D.C.'s East Potomac Park.
getty images

Visitors to East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., might have noticed a new landform taking shape over the past several days: a massive pile of dirt abutting one of the three municipal golf courses on the property. .

But not just any dirt. ... The rubble has been coming from the White House, where a President Trump-commissioned East Wing renovation project is underway, reportedly to the tune of $300 million. Since the middle of last week, dirt has been arriving by the truckload to the federally owned park, which is home to two nine-hole courses and the main attraction: an 18-hole layout called East Potomac Golf Links, which was designed by Walter Travis and dates to the 1920s.

The earth-moving was first reported by the Washington Post and has been confirmed by GOLF.com, but exactly why the White House is carting the debris to East Potomac’s nine-hole White course, toward the northern end of the property, is unclear. ... The Post reported that some of the discard will be used to add mounding to East Potomac Golf Links. But National Links Trust, the non-profit that operates and has plans to develop the course, has not commented on the matter and is referring all inquiries to the Department of the Interior. (The Department of the Interior has not responded to multiple emails from GOLF.com.)

When the National Links Trust landed the lease to the course, plus two other D.C. munis, in 2020, it announced plans for a Tom Doak-led restoration of what is a reversible design, meaning each nine can be played in two directions. More than five years later that work still hasn’t begun, but there are no indications that the organization’s long-term vision for the property has changed.


Dirt has been arriving by the truckload at East Potomac Park.
getty images

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