Trump’s golf outings in Virginia leave paddlers high, dry and angry
WASHINGTON — Every Sunday afternoon during the summer, just an hour from the White House, a group of wounded veterans take to the waters of the Potomac River in kayaks for exercise, therapy and camaraderie before cutting into a free barbecue organized by the community.
The weekly ritual is now threatened by the recreational outings of a man who has frequently praised the nation’s wounded warriors: President Donald Trump.
To protect the president’s rounds at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., the Coast Guard plans to regularly close off the stretch of the Potomac that the veterans of Team River Runner use, along with summer campers, Olympic athletes and casual paddlers. Mindful of the veterans’ grievous war wounds — some physical, some psychological — Washington’s chapter of Team River Runner likes to avoid the crowds in nearby creeks and more heavily used stretches of the river.
That may soon be impossible. “We are very thoughtful about where we paddle, so we don’t go where there will be danger or conflict,” said co-founder Joe Mornini. “Our veterans have had enough conflict.”
The 2-mile security zone along the golf course’s riverfront includes the entrance to rapids popular in Washington’s sizable kayaking circles and a boat ramp used by much of the local community. A man’s golfing habit may cause friction with family and friends left behind, but when he is the president, the aggrieved parties tend to expand. On instructions from the Secret Service, the Coast Guard will occasionally be shutting down that stretch of water, and interlopers will be subject to a $90,000 fine.
“There is no way you can aim a gun from a little bitty, wiggly boat. It won’t work,” fumed Susan Sherrod, chairwoman of the Canoe Cruisers Association, a local group that is protesting mightily. “You can’t pack a big bomb in it. It’s too small.”
The Trump Organization’s attraction to the area is understandable. Just outside the capital, past the mammoth shopping centers and across from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, great blue herons and snowy egrets loll along the leafy banks. Paddleboards, wooden canoes and kayaks cluster above where the waterway collapses into rapids at the edge of the Trump course.
But in this quiet corner of the country, passions are running high. Sherrod called an “emergency meeting” to discuss the proposal earlier this month and has since been busy posting on the association’s website. Others on the board have taken leave from work to join the lobbying efforts.
Mornini has more specific concerns. His members could wind up stuck in crowded waters, given that the closures are to be announced on marine radio, which few paddleboarders and kayakers have access to.
“We would feel very overwhelmed,” Mornini said. “Veterans need to feel safe. They need to have space. Some of them have come back from Iran and Iraq, and being in large crowds is difficult for them.”
Rep. Peter Defazio of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, penned a letter to the chief of the Coast Guard last week opposing the plans.
“The president could easily solve this by saying: I don’t have to play golf on the course by the river because I don’t want to be a jerk and inconvenience little kids in camps,” Defazio said in an interview. The authorities, he said, are “going overboard.”
At a campaign rally in Virginia last year, Trump promised, “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to play golf.”
But in his first six months in office, Trump has spent far more time on a course — whether playing or in meetings — than his predecessors. He has generally opted to visit his own courses rather than Camp David or the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va., which have builtin security.
Defazio is familiar with the Trump property, which houses two golf courses, having attended Democratic fundraisers on the premises. He plans to question the Coast Guard further at a hearing this week.
Regular paddlers question the need to block off the entire 600-yard width of the river, a distance far greater than the one between the entrance of the White House and the nearest public path. When Trump visits his oceanfront Florida estate, Mar-a-lago, the Coast Guard simply patrols the water, but vessels can easily navigate farther out to sea to get around the closures.
A spokeswoman for the Secret Service declined to comment.
This is not the first time Trump has roused the ire of his neighbors in Virginia. Local residents and conservation groups were up in arms after the Trump Organization bought the course in 2009 and chopped down more than 400 trees to open views of the water.
“That is an irony,” said Adam Van Grack, an attorney and chairman of USA Canoe/kayak, the national governing body for the Olympic sports, explaining the security benefits of tree cover. “Before the Trump company purchased this golf course, there were hundreds and hundreds of trees lining the bank. You couldn’t see the golf course from the bank.”
The Coast Guard will accept comments until Aug. 9, but the rule is already in effect. The blockades, in fact, have already been imposed five times in the past four months.
“Mitigations to threats are always evolving,” said Mark Sullivan, who served as Secret Service director under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. “I’m sure they are going to continue to adjust to make sure (the president is) safe while he’s outthereandalsomakesurethe disruption to boaters is kept at a minimum.”
Matthew Markoff, co-founder of Calleva, which runs popular summer camps and classes on the Maryland side of the Potomac, is familiar with the Trump golf course just across the river. His boats collect the children of club members from the course and bring them to camp. The club informs him about its July 4 celebrations so he can enjoy the fireworks from the river. But he too has little idea of what lies ahead.
“My biggest fear is having kids trapped on the other side of the security zone when it is implemented,” Markoff said.