A group of environmental activists defaced one of President Trump’s premier golf courses early on Sunday morning. The group, which calls itself an “anonymous environmental activist collective” snuck into Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California and using six-foot-tall letters carved a message into the green that said: “NO MORE TIGERS. NO MORE WOODS.” The "activists" also released a 1 minute video documenting the trespassing in all its glory, a recording which also spliced footage made from a drone at the time of the event.
The 7,300-yard course, located in a peninsula just south of Los Angeles, was recently ranked the 43rd best course in California by Golf Digest.
In a statement sent to The Washington Post, the group said the vandalism was carried out in response to the Trump administration’s “blatant disregard” for the environment. “In response to the president’s recent decision to gut our existing protection policies, direct action was conceived and executed on the green of his California golf course in the form of a simple message: NO MORE TIGERS. NO MORE WOODS,” the statement said.
The message was carved into the green using gardening tools and took less than one hour to accomplish, according to a member of the group who discussed the project with The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.
The group consisted of four people, who accessed the course by scaling a fence and “walking down a steep hill laced with cacti,” the group member told The Post. “Tearing up the golf course felt justified in many ways,” the member said.
“Repurposing what was once a beautiful stretch of land into a playground for the privileged is an environmental crime in its own right.” According to the law, it's also criminal trespassing and explains why the "activists" were all shrouded head and toe to avoid being recognized in the video.
Neither the golf course, nor the Trump Organization's NYC HQ respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that the department received a call for service Sunday morning about grass being dug up around hole five at the golf club. The spokesman said the department sent a deputy to the scene to determine whether the damage constituted an act of vandalism or whether it was accidental. It was the former.
“We hope this sends a message to Trump and his corrupt administration that their actions will be met with action,” the member added. Previously farmland, Trump National Golf Club opened in November 2000. On its website, the club touts its dedication to “protecting the environmentally sensitive habitat that plays host to several protected plant species and the endangered Coastal California Gnatcatcher (a small migratory bird).”
As the WaPo renminds us, Sunday’s vandalism was merely the latest in a long series of attacks involving Trump properties; most recently, the president's brand-new Washington hotel was spray-painted with the words “Black Lives Matter” during a demonstration.