Trump cannot close public park for renovation into professional golf course, US judge rules

A federal judge on Saturday ordered that a riverside public park in Washington must remain open for now, rather than being closed for renovations sought by US President Donald Trump.It is the latest setback for Trump's plan to turn East Potomac Park into a championship-level course geared toward professional golfers.In a 30-page decision, US District Judge Ana Reyes temporarily blocked the federal government from moving forward with a plan that would have closed the area on Sunday. Trump said in an October 18 social media post that the closure would last 15 months and would transform the park's golf offerings into "one of the Best and Most Spectacular Golf Courses anywhere in the World."Reyes ruled that the Trump administration's stated reasons for closing the park were "pretextual" and that the government violated at least two federal laws "to meet an arbitrary deadline.""The government proposes to close a historic park, daily enjoyed by Washingtonians of all stripes, indefinitely," Reyes wrote.Although Reyes ordered that the park - near the Jefferson Memorial, two miles south of the White House - remain open, the Trump administration does not have to maintain golf operations at the site, the judge wrote. But the government "cannot use the absence of golf operations as a reason to exclude the public," she added.Judges push back against Trump efforts to…