On Wednesday night, Donald Trump dismissed criticism over his decision to host the Saudi-sponsored LIV golf tournament by enjoying a night out in Manhattan with the competitors and other athletes.
Trump was spotted with Dustin Johnson, 38, with whom he frequently plays golf and with whom he will participate in the pro-am on Thursday, accompanied by his wife Melania. Paulina Gretzky, Johnson’s actress wife, was with him.
Trump shook hands with Caitlyn Jenner, who was also there, and rapper Nelly performed on stage.
12 teams and 48 players will compete for a $4 million top prize in the most recent LIV Golf Invitational Series event, which will be held at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey club from July 29 to July 31.
Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Rickie Fowler are just a few of the high-profile athletes that the fledgling LIV tour has been able to snag by promising them higher income for leaving the PGA.
The PGA tried to prohibit players who compete in LIV events earlier this year, and the Department of Justice launched an inquiry into the PGA this month for alleged anticompetitive conduct.
The Saudi Arabia-sponsored trip has outraged the relatives of 9/11 victims, who are dismayed that the former president is so openly endorsing the nation where the majority of the terrorists originated.
Insisting that the LIV tournament was the future, Trump has stayed defiant.
On Monday morning, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that “all of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big “thank you” from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year.”
“If you don’t take the money now, you won’t receive anything after the merger, and all you’ll be able to say is how wise the initial signees were.”
“Good luck to everyone, and congrats to Cam Smith on his great WIN!”
In a letter to the former president, their organisation 9/11 Justice expressed their “great pain and fury” regarding the competition.
“Mr. Trump, the evidence is more convincing than ever. Both the heinous attack on America and the deaths of our loved ones are entirely the fault of the Saudi Arabian country. And you are aware of it,” the letter said.
“We ask for the chance to have some of our family members meet with you in the coming days to convey our concerns in person and urge you to stop doing business with the dictatorship that was involved in the death of our loved ones,” the letter reads.
Although 15 of the 19 individuals who hijacked and wrecked four planes that day in New York City, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon were Saudi nationals, Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement in the attacks for 20 years.
In November 2021, after Biden authorised their declassification, the FBI made the materials from its Operation Encore probe public.
The Bureau had looked into, among other things, whether three people, including a representative of the Saudi embassy in the US, had knowledge of the assaults beforehand.
Two of the hijackers received “substantial logistic help,” according to a previous email made public in September, which included “procuring living rooms and aid with integrating.”
Attorneys for the 9/11 families contend that the desert kingdom supported al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation that carried out the attacks, in order to prevent domestic fundamentalists from rising up against the reigning royal family.
Before establishing training camps in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the terror attacks, came from a well-known Saudi family.
“It is beyond comprehension,” said Dennis McGinley, whose brother Daniel McGinley perished in the attacks while working on the 89th floor of the South Tower.
“For Donald Trump, a former president of the United States, to host the Saudi golf tournament, help it get off the ground 45 miles or 50 miles from Ground Zero, where 750 New Jerseyans were killed on that day, is beyond comprehension.”
As 9/11 families, we’ve had to develop thick skin over the previous 21 years, but this genuinely hurts, he told DailyMail.com. This one hurts so much.
McGinley claimed that since mailing the letter, no one from Trump’s staff has gotten in touch with 9/11 Justice.
The letter drew reference to remarks made in 2016 on Fox News.
“Who detonated the World Trade Center bomb?” Not the Iraqis, though. Saudi Arabian. Open the documents and look at Saudi Arabia,’ he advised the network at the time.
The majority of the people who arrived were from Saudi Arabia. They weren’t from Iraq.
It is inconceivable to us, Mr. Trump, that a former president of the United States would disregard our loved ones for his financial gain, the letter read.
We sincerely hope you will reevaluate your business dealings with the Saudi Golf League and accept our invitation to meet.
Trump maintained his cordial relations with the Saudi government despite his earlier remarks.
Despite the kingdom’s proxy war in Yemen, he backed arms agreements with it and remained close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite widespread condemnation of the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Before the plane crashed into the tower, McGinley was speaking to his brother on the phone.
Daniel and his wife Peggy were raising their five children in their new “dream home” in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
He claimed that while on the phone with him, his brother was sobbing and saying, “I just want to get home to Peggy and the kids.”
For the past 21 years, I have been haunting this conversation, McGinley stated.
One of the golfers stated in their interviews that they were only attempting to support their families.
Yes, my brother Danny and the other 2,900 people were only trying to support their families. And on September 11, all of that was horribly snatched away from them.
The LIV has already hosted two significant occasions, and the Bedminster competition will be its third.
At the Trump National Doral Miami, Trump will also serve as the host of the season-ending Team Championship.
It’s more likely that his decision to host the LIV tournaments was motivated by his strained relationship with the PGA than by a desire to please the Saudis.
At 2016 and 2021, the PGA cancelled events in Bedminster and Doral.
They said that while the 2021 tour was relocated from Bedminster in the days following the January 6 Capitol rioting, the 2016 tour was not cancelled from Doral due to political considerations.