The LIV Golf Invitational Series event at Trump National Golf Bedminster is still a week away, but the former U.S. president just couldn’t wait to stir the pot.
Donald Trump signed on to Truth Social on Monday and implored golfers to take the guaranteed money now and join the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-funded series.
“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,” Trump wrote on the social media platform. “If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.”
It’s important to note a merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is not currently on the table.
A New York City native, Trump’s comments come just days after families of 9/11 victims and survivors sent a letter to condemn the former president for hosting the Saudi-funded series. The letter expressed their “extreme pain, frustration and anger” and even included a quote from Trump’s 2016 comments on the 9/11 terrorist attacks from a segment on Fox & Friends: “…Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis – it was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Open the documents. We ought to get Bush or somebody to have the documents opened because frankly, if you open the documents, I think you are going to see it was Saudi Arabia…”
“The former President correctly speculated in 2016 that Saudi Arabia knocked down the towers and now the FBI has released the documents to prove him right,” Brett Eagleson, an advocate for the 9/11 Justice group, told CNN, “yet he is choosing money over America. So much for America First. A sad day.”
Supported by Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, LIV Golf has long been criticized as a way for the Kingdom to “sportswash” its human rights record.
In response to Sunday’s letter, LIV Golf sent the following statement: “As we have said all along, these families have our deepest sympathy. While some may not agree, we believe golf is a force for good around the world.”
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