Starting Friday, Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster will host the third event for LIV Golf, the new Saudi-backed pro circuit that has shaken the sport’s main professional organizer, the PGA Tour, by alienating golfers reputable with bigger and guaranteed paydays. .
Leading up to this weekend’s tournament, Trump has promoted the event in interviews and public statements, encouraging golfers to join LIV Golf and disparaging the PGA Tour.
“Just arrived in Bedminster for the big LIV Tour Golf Tournament,” he posted Wednesday on Truth Social, the social media site he created. “Record money for the winners, lots of excitement. Come Friday, Saturday or Sunday to see the big play of the best players!” Trump is benefiting from his professional relationship with LIV Golf, especially after PGA of America officials pulled the plug on the 2022 Bedminster PGA Championship following the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. In October, LIV Golf will hold its final competition of the year at another Trump property, Trump National Doral in South Florida.
But while activists, the media and others have expressed concern that LIV Golf would provide international legitimacy to the ruling regime in Saudi Arabia, which has been accused for years of human rights violations, Trump has dismissed those criticisms.
During an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, he spoke approvingly of how the golf tour, which is funded by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, has already boosted the kingdom’s reputation.
“I think LIV has been a great thing for Saudi Arabia, for the image of Saudi Arabia,” Trump told the Journal.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to questions from CNN.
Human rights groups and media organizations have questioned both LIV Golf’s organizers and players about the tour’s connection to Saudi Arabia. Several of these questions have focused on the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
A US intelligence report released last year determined that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation to capture or kill the Saudi journalist, confirming reports shortly after the assassination that the CIA had arrived to the same conclusion. During his presidency, however, Trump publicly played down allegations that Bin Salman was involved as his administration strengthened U.S. ties with the Saudis.
But the LIV Golf event in Bedminster has also raised the ire of some survivors and families of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. Speaking at a news conference near Bedminster on Tuesday, Terry Strada, president of 9/11 Families United, said the group is “horrified” by the “offensive, disrespectful and hurtful” tournament at Trump’s club, which is in just 50 miles from the site of the 2001 New York bombing. Strada said she was “very disappointed” in Trump, but noted that he was not the main target of the group’s criticism. In an interview with ESPN at his club on Thursday, Trump reiterated that he has been “friends” with people in Saudi Arabia for “a long time.”
“Honestly, what they’re doing for golf is great. What they’re doing for the players is great,” the former president said.
Asked what he would say to the families of 9/11 victims protesting the LIV Golf event, Trump appeared to question whether there was knowledge of Saudi involvement in the terrorist attacks.
“No one has gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should, in terms of the maniacs who did that horrible thing to our city, to our country, to the world,” he said. “So nobody’s really been there. But I can tell you there’s a lot of really great people that are out here today.”
The new circuit has drawn criticism from the PGA Tour, which has suspended players signed with LIV Golf, as well as some of golf’s biggest stars, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. LIV Golf’s appeal to the sport’s top athletes, including bigger purses and guaranteed payouts, threatens the PGA Tour’s dominance and appears to have caught the legacy organization off guard.
Trump himself seems to enjoy the damage to the PGA Tour, with which he has had a rocky relationship. While his clubs have hosted events for the PGA and other professional golf events in the past, the PGA Tour has not held an event at a Trump property since a March 2016 tournament in Doral. And after pulling Bedminster out of the 2022 PGA Championship, the organization has been squarely in Trump’s crosshairs.
“All those golfers who remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all its various guises, will pay a heavy price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV arrives, and you get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from the officials of the PGA. making millions of dollars a year,” Trump wrote last week in a post on Truth Social. “If you don’t take the money now, you’ll get nothing after the merger and just say how smart the original signatories were.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has spoken out about professional sports since entering politics. During his presidency, he frequently criticized the National Football League for allowing players to protest during the national anthem. And last year, Trump joined other Republicans in calling on Americans to boycott Major League Baseball after the league moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta following a new Georgia election law .
This story has been updated with additional reaction.