Former President Donald Trump praises Saudi Arabia, avoids 9/11 question as he hosts LIV Golf Bedminster
Adam Woodard - 8h ago
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/former-president-donald-trump-praises-saudi-arabia-avoids-911-question-as-he-hosts-liv-golf-bedminster/ar-AA104wKn
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Before teeing off with Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and his own son, Eric, in the LIV Golf Invitational Series pro-am on Thursday, former President of the United States Donald Trump spoke to ESPN about hosting the controversial circuit at his club in New Jersey.
“I’ve known these people for a long time in Saudi Arabia, they’ve been friends of mine for a long time,” explained Trump. “They’ve invested in many American companies, they own big percentages of many, many American companies, and frankly what they’re doing for golf is so great.
“The PGA was not loved by a lot of the players, as you know, for a long time,” he claimed. “Now they’ve got an alternative and nobody would have ever known there would be a gold rush like this.”
Last week Trump signed on to Truth Social to implore golfers to take the guaranteed money now and join the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-funded series, and he doubled-down on Thursday.
“Remember this, if there’s a merger, the people that didn’t come will never get anything except a thank you from the people who took advantage of them,” said Trump.
It’s important to note a merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is not currently on the table and has not been discussed.
A New York City native, Trump’s comments come just days after families of 9/11 victims and survivors sent a letter to condemn the former president for hosting the Saudi-funded series. The letter expressed their “extreme pain, frustration and anger” and even included a quote from Trump’s 2016 comments on the 9/11 terrorist attacks from a segment on Fox & Friends:
“ … Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis – it was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Open the documents. We ought to get Bush or somebody to have the documents opened because frankly, if you open the documents, I think you are going to see it was Saudi Arabia …”
“The former President correctly speculated in 2016 that Saudi Arabia knocked down the towers and now the FBI has released the documents to prove him right,” Brett Eagleson, an advocate for the 9/11 Justice group, told CNN, “yet he is choosing money over America. So much for America First. A sad day.”
Supported by Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, LIV Golf has long been criticized as a way for the Kingdom to “sportswash” its human rights record. Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
When asked to address the issues raised by the 9/11 families, who will host a protest and press conference on Friday, Trump avoided the nature of the question entirely, ignoring ties between a Saudi spy and two of the hijackers.
“Well, nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have, as to the maniacs that did that horrible thing to our city, to our country, to the world, so nobody’s really been there,” Trump said. “But I can tell you there are a lot of really great people that are out here today and we’re going to have a lot of fun and we’re going to celebrate.”