"David Schutzenhofer, a Trump Organization employee, reached out to one of the vendors the government later hired for the iconic site near the Lincoln Memorial, documents show."
"The general manager of President Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., has offered suggestions to guide the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and helped recruit one of the contractors for the job, according to federal documents and a government spokeswoman.
The manager, David Schutzenhofer, who has run the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster since 2006, is a private citizen with no known training in engineering or architecture.
An Interior Department spokeswoman said Mr. Schutzenhofer had advised the government on the repair project without becoming a temporary government employee. Had he become one, he would have been required to take ethics training and pledge to avoid conflicts of interest.
“Mr. Schutzenhofer is unpaid and is volunteering his time to offer suggestions on this project because he is an American patriot,” the spokeswoman, Katie Martin, said in an email. She called Mr. Schutzenhofer a world-renowned leader in the hospitality industry and said he did not “direct” any federal contracts."
David A. Fahrenthold and Maxine Joselow report for the New York Times May 19, 2026.
