Celebrity golf cheat, grand jury target, and former US President Donald Trump, fresh from his triumphant Senior Golf Tournament cheat last week, has scored three LIV Golf tournaments at his East Coast golf courses for the 2023 season. They will be televised on the CW Network. The Saudi-funded LIV Golf Tour “sportswashing” campaign’s 2022 tour stained the Trump National Golf Clubs in Bedminster, New Jersey and Doral, Florida, and was only seen on YouTube.
Another big difference this year: Donald Trump will be taking foreign money while he is an officially-declared candidate in the 2024 presidential election. When he appears at the LIV tourneys, will the FEC deem them campaign events? We’ll see.
Mr. Trump embraced the insurgent Saudi-backed tour in revenge after the U.S.-based PGA pulled its 2022 championship tourney from his Bedminster course, but he has history backing upstart sports leagues, and it’s not the first time Donald Trump has taken Saudi money. Saudi cash saved Trump from bankrupcy, and, despite anti-Saudi rhetoric during his 2016 campaign, he and son-in-law Jared Kushner have kept their shoddy businesses afloat on an Arabian Gulf of Saudi money.
By April 2022, Jared Kushner’s equity firm primarily depended on Saudi money. Previously, as Trump’s Secretary of Everything, Mr. Kushner had defended Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman. In 2021, after Steven Mnuchin stepped down as Treasury Secretary, the Saudi fund invested $1 billion in his business. It’s unclear how much Mr. Trump will earn from the Saudi-backed golf tour in 2023 but, knowing him, he’ll probably start bragging about it.
Last year there were strong objections to Trump’s embrace of Saudi golf money by the PGA, by survivors of the victims of 9/11, and National Press Club members who remember the “grisly-bonesaw” murder of their collegue Jamal Khashoggi.
More:
“Trump courses hosting three tournaments for Saudi-underwritten LIV Golf,” Stephen Neukam, The Hill
“Trump courses to host 3 events for Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour,” Herb Scribner, Axios
Related:
“Hosting Saudi Golf Tourney, Trump Has Forgotten He Used to Blame Kingdom for 9/11,” Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone
“Trump: LIV Golf tournament a ‘great thing’ for Saudi Arabia,” Jared Gans, The Hill
“The marriage of LIV Golf and Donald Trump is the stuff schemes are made of,” Eamon Lynch, Golfweek
“Donald Trump’s Sketchy Playbook for Blowing Up a Pro Sports League,” Ian Ward, Politico
“Remembering The Tour De Trump, Donald Trump’s Failed Bike Race,” Patrick Redford, Deadspin
“Does Saudi Arabia Own Donald Trump?” NotionsCapital
“Ivana Trump was buried near the first hole of Trump National Golf Club. Her gravesite could offer tax breaks for the business.” Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert and Isabella Zavarise, Business Insider
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Image (“Trump Welcomes His Saudi Masters to New Jersey”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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