9/11 survivor group contacts Donald Trump. They want him to do this about LIV Golf event
The LIV Golf Invitational Series returns at the end of the month.
The Saudi-backed tour’s next stop is Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
On Sunday, families of Sept. 11 victims penned a letter to former President Donald Trump urging him to cancel the tournament at his course, according to multiple reports.
The New York Times reported the group, 9/11 Justice, wrote the letter and emailed it to one of Trump’s aides on Sunday.
“We simply cannot understand how you could agree to accept money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s golf league to host their tournament at your golf course, and to do so in the shadows of ground zero in New Jersey, which lost over 700 residents during the attacks,” the letter reads, according to multiple reports. “It is incomprehensible to us that a former president of the United States would cast our loved ones aside for personal financial gain. We hope you will reconsider your business relationship with the Saudi golf league and will agree to meet with us.”
NBC News reported the group noted in their letter that Trump previously said Saudi Arabia had some responsibility with the 9/11 attacks, which he did on an appearance on FOX News in 2016.
The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund finances the LIV Golf tour, and the players that have defected from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour to play in the inaugural season of it have faced criticism for alleged “sportswashing.”
Cam Smith, who won the British Open on Sunday, is rumored to be joining the LIV Golf tour. In his post-round press conference, Smith did not answer directly about the rumor.
“I just won the British Open, and you’re asking about that?” Smith said. “I think that’s pretty, not that good. ... I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”
This is the second time in a month that a 9/11 survivors group has protested the LIV Golf tour’s appearance on U.S. soil. Ahead of the inaugural league’s tournament in Portland, Oregon in early July, a group wrote a letter to multiple players that joined to criticize their involvement, according to multiple outlets.
The upstart golf league has eight events this season, which culminates with the Team Championship at the end of October at another Trump course: Trump National Doral in Miami.
Critics of the league have pointed at Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who the CIA reportedly linked to Saudi Arabia.
