Former President Donald Trump was in attendance this weekend at the Saudi-backed LIV Golf event held at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. (The Roman numeral LIV equals 54, which is also the perfect score if a player birdies all 18 holes on a par-72 course.)
As seen at the event below, Trump stands on a platform wearing his signature Make America Great Again red hat and waves to supporters who are chanting “USA, USA.”
That’s not Melania. Siggy Flicker? pic.twitter.com/LreaWwO5IH
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 11, 2023
While non-Trump supporters are commenting about Trump’s waistline (“And he’s fat shaming Chris Christie???”) and the woman who pats the former President on the back as he leaves the crowd (“that’s not Melania”), others note the irony of Americans chanting USA at a Saudi-funded event.
“Chanting ‘USA’ at Saudi event,” writes one with a shaking-my-head emoji. Another eludes to a death of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
LIV Golf — which is controversially set to merge with America’s PGA Tour, an arrangement being investigated by Congress — is financed by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, which has been subject to global criticism for its human rights record and for its efforts to improve its public image through sports — or “sportswashing.”
In July 2022, a group of September 11 victims’ family members condemned Trump for hosting a LIV Golf event at his Bedminster golf club. In a letter urging Trump not to host the event, they noted that Trump himself had blamed Saudi Arabia for the 9/11 attack during a 2016 interview on Fox News.
[NOTE: A recent statement by 9/11 Families United said it is “shocked and deeply offended by the newly announced merger between the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf league that is bankrolled by billions of sportswashing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi operatives played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it is bankrolling all of professional golf.”]
Trump told Fox News in February 2016: “Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis. It was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia.”
