Relatives of 9/11 victims have urged Donald Trump to cancel an LIV golf tournament scheduled for later this month at the former President’s Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ
Members of the 9/11 Justice Group requested a meeting with Trump in a letter Sunday, noting that he had previously blamed Saudi Arabia for the terrorist attack. The tournament is part of the Saudi-sponsored LIV golf series and will take place from July 29th to 31st. The LIV tour season finale is slated for late October at Trump Doral in Florida.
“We just cannot understand how you could agree to accept money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Golf League to host your tournament on your golf course in the shadow of Ground Zero in New Jersey, which hosted over 700 during the year residents has lost attacks,” the group writes in a letter obtained by The Post.
In their letter, the group said it was “incomprehensible” that a former US president would disregard family members for financial gain. “We hope you will take a second look at how you feel about the Saudi Golf League and agree to meet with us.”
A Trump spokesperson and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Several residents of northern New Jersey are severely hurt by the impending arrival of LIV Golf.
“We’ve had to acquire a strong skin for the last 20 years, but it’s harsh and insensitive,” Dennis McGinley of Haworth, NJ, whose brother Daniel perished in the attack, told NorthJersey.comTrump brought up the subject of Saudi participation in the attacks while running for president.
In a 2016 Fox News interview, Trump inquired, “Who detonated the World Trade Center?,” according to the letter. Not the Iraqis, though. Saudi Arabian. Consider Saudi Arabia. “Many came,” he continued, “mainly from Saudi Arabia. They weren’t from Iraq.
The introduction of LIV Golf shows that relations between the US and Saudi Arabia are still difficult more than 20 years after the attacks. President Biden visited the nation last week and talked with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince who is working to improve the kingdom’s reputation abroad and who the CIA claims was responsible for the pre-planned murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In a letter to Biden Sunday, the group 9-11 Families United asked to meet with the president, writing, “We are pained to say this, but you are the first president since the September 11 attacks not to hit the families and bereaved. And yet you’ve just traveled halfway across the world to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed vin Salman, where he had the gall to lecture you on human rights and “values.” ”
LIV Golf is backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the financial arm of the Saudi government. A slew of popular golfers, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, to name just two, joined, poised to join a regime trying to publicly rehabilitate its image given its appalling human rights record in exchange for a huge payday.