Former President Donald Trump is infuriating 9/11 families by hosting a Memorial Day weekend golf tournament bankrolled by the Saudi government in Virginia – 29 miles from the Pentagon, where 184 of nearly 3,000 victims were murdered.
The three-day sporting event is “an insult to the memory of those killed in the attacks,” reads a statement by 9/11 Families United.
Recently declassified documents reveal a long-suspected Saudi role in helping Al-Qaeda hijackers locate in the US to prepare for the terror attacks.
“These documents lay bare facts surrounding the Kingdom’s culpability in murdering our loved ones,” the group’s national chair, Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed in the World Trade Center, wrote in a May 18th letter to Trump.
“Your decision to maintain an ongoing business partnership with the Saudi government has been deeply hurtful to the 9/11 community.”
Terry Strada, left, penned the scathing May 18th letter to Trump. Courtesy of Terry StradaTrump this week said: “I fully understand and love” the 9/11 families.
“But it’s tremendous economic development, tremendous number of jobs, just for an event like this — it’s a big event,” he told reporters at his golf course.
His comments outraged Strada. “He boasts how economically hosting LIV events is lining his pockets,” she told The Post. “He is partaking in their ‘sports washing’ campaign to improve their heinous past. How is that putting America first?”
Former President Donald Trump talks with Yasir Al-Rumayyan during the first round of the LIV Golf Tournament. APThe Saudis have used its LIV Golf League to cleanse a history of human-rights abuses and terrorism, critics charge. The kingdom was also implicated in the brutal 2017 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The tournament, financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has recruited PGA stars, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau — with reported signing fees up to $200 million.
The tournament, financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has recruited PGA stars. Getty Images“Look, we’re here to play golf,” DeChambeau told reporters at Trump’s National Golf Course outside Washington, DC. “I think the most important part is to provide great entertainment wherever possible and whatever platform that is.”
Trump did not return a request for comment.
