DC residents love this public park. Trump plans to ruin it.

The view from one of East Potomac Park’s golf courses.

Hello — it’s Saturday, Aug. 1. Today is Top of the Ferris Wheel Day, a fake holiday (aren’t most of them?) thought up by former Boston Globe columnist Beverly Beckham as a way to get people to overcome their dread that the end of summer is nigh. In her view, Aug. 1 puts you right in the thick of the summer ride, at the peak of this special season, so enjoy it. Globe reporter Billy Baker chatted with Beverly for the Starting Point newsletter; it’s an enjoyable read that I guarantee will have you eating ice cream for breakfast. (The newsletter is free; sign up here.)

The sun rose in Boston at 5:36 a.m. and set at 8:03 p.m. for 14 hours and 27 minutes of sunlight. There was a full moon Thursday, which The Old Farmer’s Almanac says was a Buck Moon because the antlers of male deer are at their peak growth. As for the specific northern species of reindeer, the males will shed their antlers in late fall, while females will keep theirs all winter to protect food sources during their pregnancies. That’s how we know that all of Santa’s reindeer are females. And preggers to boot.

🌫 What’s it like outside? Should be cloudy but dry in most of Massachusetts over the weekend, but more rain could move in Monday.

⚾️ Hey, sport: Since the All-Star break, the Red Sox are 12-3 and have gained 4 games on Tampa Bay, but they’re still 6 games back in the AL East.

The new Women’s Pro Baseball League kicks off its inaugural season today, with four founding teams and 30 games scheduled through Sept. 6. There is a Boston team, but don’t plan on seeing it in Boston. See more below.

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🚧 Trump wants to wreck another iconic DC treasure

You’ve surely seen how Blob the Builder thinks the best legacy he can leave the country is a portfolio of massive buildings and silly monuments and chintzy baubles. Not decent housing, universal health care, good wages, affordable child care, a top-notch public education system, or first-class scientific and technological research. Nah. He’s all about self-aggrandizement. Ballrooms and arches. Gold plating. He measures his worth in the pounds of gilt he can super-glue onto every surface, much like the pounds of fake tan lotion he slathers onto his face.

Here’s his latest insult.

In 1920, the federal government opened the 330-acre public East Potomac Park on a manmade island in D.C. (The Jefferson Memorial sits at the north end of the island; the park takes up most of the rest.) One major recreation use is golf: There are two 9-hole courses favored by novices and casual golfers (par 27 and par 36), one 18-hole course (par 72), three practice holes, a driving range, a fully stocked golf shop, miniature golf, foot golf (first I’ve heard of this and it sounds like fun), and food and drinks at the Potomac Grille.

Greens fees on the weekend range from $20 to $32 for the 9-hole courses and $48 for the 18-hole course. (In metro Boston, playing 18 holes at the public George Wright Golf Course in Hyde Park will cost you $70 on a weekend.) East Potomac has discounts for veterans, seniors, and those 18 and younger.

But golf doesn’t consume the entire park. There also are:

• Indoor and outdoor tennis courts

• Athletic fields for baseball, softball, soccer, rugby, and football

• A public pool

• A playground

• A 3.2-mile scenic perimeter road and loop heavily used by runners, walkers, and cyclists

• A flat, paved path along the water used by walkers and recreational anglers (who catch striped bass, catfish, perch, and more)

• Picnic areas

• A public floating dock for kayaks and paddleboards

There are sweeping views of the water and some of our nation’s most iconic monuments. To top it all off, the park is lined with more than 500 graceful flowering cherry trees, relatives of the cherry trees that circle the Tidal Basin and continue north onto the grounds of the Washington Monument.

In short, East Potomac Park is a gem, a haven for a wide variety of recreational uses, treasured by locals and visitors alike.

Naturally, Trump is going to wreck it.

He wants to tear out the golf courses and fields and paths and picnic areas that are there now and build a luxurious championship-level 18-hole course that could host major pro tournaments. (Don’t hold your breath, Jabba; PGA Championship venues are already booked through 2035 and the US Open is set through 2051 with a few open slots in the 2040s. Then again, I think holding your breath would be a great idea.)

Interior officials claim that there will be discount rates for locals, as well as one 9-hole course and similar recreational facilities to what is there now.

Do you believe them?

Of course not! In June, as Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and a golf course architect toured the grounds, a news photographer grabbed a shot of one of Trump’s minions holding architectural plans signed by Trump that showed the new golf course taking up the entire park: No 9-hole course, no playground, no other recreational facilities.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

To add insult to injury, Trump has dumped about 37,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil in a huge mound at one of the 9-hole courses at the park and is now saying the park is dirty and dangerous. The soil came from the demolition of the East Wing of the White House and construction of that massive ballroom. The government says it hasn’t finished testing the soil for contaminants, but so far has found lead, chromium, arsenic, mercury, PCBs, pesticides, and petroleum-related byproducts. The feds claim none of them are present at dangerous levels, and there’s no asbestos.

They also claim there are no plans to use the contaminated soil as fill for the new golf course.

Do you believe them?

Preservation and environmental groups certainly don’t. One of them, the DC Preservation League, is asking a federal court to let them test samples. The feds are refusing. Others have sued to stop the project altogether.