A group 9/11 survivors and their families protest a Saudi Arabia-funded golf tournament on Donald Trump‘s private club in New Jersey, and said the former president was turning his back on them.
The LIV tournamenta professional golf tournament designed to compete with the PGA and created by the Saudi state fund, kicks off Friday at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.
9/11 Justice, a group of survivors and their families, are set to rally against the tournament outside the club. They say hosting the tournament so close to Ground Zero is disrespectful given Saudi Arabia’s alleged links to the terrorist attacks.
“It is reprehensible that they have turned their backs on us,” Tim Frolich, a 9/11 survivor who was seriously injured in the attack, told Metro.co.uk on Thursday.
‘The 9/11 Mass murder of our husbands, parents, children and siblings has caused us a lifetime of grief and pain. That pain fuels our ongoing struggle to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its role in the attacks and what they took from all of us,” the group said in an open letter to Trump on July 17.
“It is incomprehensible to us, Mr. Trump, that a former president of the United States would put our loved ones aside for personal financial gain.”
The connection between certain Saudi government officials and the 9/11 hijackers was made public after the Biden administration an FBI report released in March.
In addition, 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi citizens.
“There is no company or entity that should be doing business with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia right now without knowing these facts, without knowing what they were doing 20 years ago,” Frolich said.
9/11 Justice described the tournament as “in the shadow of Ground Zero.” A total of 674 New Jerseyans died in the attacks.
“It’s possible that one or both planes flew over Bedminster Golf Course en route to the towers,” Frolich said.
Many protesters have noted that Trump has seemingly reversed his stance on this issue since running for office. They specifically point to a comment Trump made on the campaign trail in 2016.
In an interview on Fox & Friends, Trump said, “Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis, it was Saudis. Look at Saudi Arabia. Open the documents. We should ask Bush or someone else to open the documents, because frankly, if you open the documents, I think you’ll see it was Saudi Arabia… Those people wouldn’t have been in the country if my policy had remained intact.’
Juliette Scauso, daughter of 9/11 victim Dennis Scauso, told… CNN“Trump was right. But now he’s taking money from them.’
Some members of 9/11 Justice even had the opportunity to meet Trump on the anniversary of the 2019 attacks.
“On September 11, 2019, President Trump was kind enough to have families in the White House,” Frolich said. “I walked up to him, shook his hand and he said, ‘Yes, I’m going to help you.’
When news broke that the tournament would take place in Bedminster, the group requested a meeting with the former president to share their concerns directly with him.
This time they were usually greeted with silence.
9/11 Truth President Brett Eagleson spoke to one of the former president’s aides, but he said the call had “little to no value.” Politics.
The LIV tournament is the creation of the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, chaired by the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In recent years, the Public Investment Fund has been criticized for its use in laundering Saudi Arabia’s image to the rest of the world through “sports laundering.”
In 2021, the Public Investment Fund led a consortium to buy Newcastle United FC, which led to widespread public reaction.
Earlier this month, the fund also bought a 17% stake in Aston Martina deal that included the acquisition of their Formula 1 team.
The tour has attracted a number of major golf professionals, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.
Pressing the tournament’s connection to the Public Investment Fund, Trump justified his decision by emphasizing his trust in his business partners.
“I’ve known these people in Saudi Arabia for a long time, they’ve been friends with me for a long time, they’ve invested in many American companies,” he said in an interview on ESPN.
Asked specifically about the concerns of 9/11 survivors, Trump did not answer the question, instead saying that “unfortunately nobody got to the bottom of 9/11 and they should have.”
“As for the maniacs that have done our city, our country, the world, so no one has really been there,” he continued. “But I can tell you there are a lot of great people out there today, and we’re going to have a lot of fun and we’re going to celebrate.”
Still others have pointed to the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, whose killers were linked to Public Investment Fund chairman bin Salman.
The LIV Golf Tournament will not be televised but will be streamed live from the tournament website and the YouTube and Facebook channels.
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