The game, which has long been his passion, has been roiled by controversy over a new tour (similar to a league) backed by a Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Players must choose between tradition and the big bucks this new tour offers, weighed down by the association with Saudi Arabia’s appalling human rights record. In typical fashion, Trump has inserted himself into the middle of this argument. Players should “take the money” the new LIV Golf Tour offers, he says, rather than stay loyal to the venerable PGA Tour, predicting an inevitable merger. “If you don’t take the money now,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account, “you won’t get anything after the merger and just say how smart the original signers were.” To be clear, only Trump is talking about one possible merger of the organizations. Instead, according to CNBC, the PGA is hiring lobbyists to fight the LIV over an “irrational threat that doesn’t care about the profitability or true growth of the game,” as its commissioner calls the Allied European Tour and LIV’s suspension -Players from their events. Of course, according to Forbes, this blow will be softened by large prize money payouts that LIV will be offering this year.
At the center of it all is the head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, who must be credited with LIV’s ambitious efforts to challenge the Gulf establishment.
Trump’s endorsement of LIV by asking players to bet on the money is entirely consistent for a man who once said in The Art of the Deal, “You can’t be too greedy.” But money isn’t the only benefit LIV golfers receive; They actually have to play less golf on the new tour. LIV events are three-day, 54-hole events. (The name LIV is the Roman numeral version of 54.) PGA tournaments are four-day events requiring 72 holes of play. More money for less work – what is there to lose? Trump apparently thought he too had nothing to lose and much to gain when he accepted LIV’s request to host an event in its inaugural season. This is reminiscent of Trump’s involvement in the 1980s with a nascent football league called the USFL. Trump, then the owner of the New Jersey Generals, sought to file an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. Although the USFL won the case, the NFL only had to pay a token dollar, and in the end the protracted court battle sank the nascent Football League. Trump could experience this experience again – and perhaps process his failure again on behalf of golf. There are other perks for Trump as well. There’s the fee Trump will receive for hiring his Bedminster, N.J. course, along with valuable free publicity, as the press covers both the event and the added controversy of a former US President who is with works with an organization controlled by a state with terrible human rights records. (A State Department report notes that Saudi Arabia’s “significant human rights issues included: unlawful killings; executions for nonviolent crimes; enforced disappearances.”) The 2018 murder and dismemberment of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi drew the attention of the World on Kingdom’s record. Trump’s connection to Saudi Arabia certainly worried members of 9/11 Justice, an advocacy group representing the families of those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 attackers who killed nearly 3,000 that day were Saudi nationals. According to an analysis by ` security correspondent Gordon Corera, they were linked to al-Qaeda, which wealthy Saudis are said to be helping to fund. Despite this, Trump is sticking with the Saudis. (The Saudi government denies any involvement in 9/11.)
Trump appears immune to efforts by others to shame him, so the fact that he plans to host the tournament is not surprising. Add to this the long-standing evidence that he sees the kingdom as good business partners and important allies, and his decision to prefer the Saudis to the American tour, and the objections of the 9/11 families seem inevitable.
In the 1990s, when Trump faced financial perils, Saudis bought a large yacht and hotel from him, according to the Washington Post, and the Riyadh government also paid $4.5 million for a Trump apartment. The Post reported that in 2015, when he was a presidential candidate, he said of the Saudis: “They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Shouldn’t I like her? I like them very much.” As President Trump made Saudi Arabia the first stop on his first trip abroad. When Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Trump’s response to the scandal was muted, to say the least. After the CIA reported that the assassination was ordered by MBS, Trump issued an official statement saying, “Maybe he did it and maybe he didn’t!” (The Saudi Foreign Ministry dismissed a similar assessment by the US (Intelligence report on MBS back in 2021.) He reiterated his interest in money and also highlighted an upcoming US arms sale to Saudi Arabia worth $20-30 billion. It was just part of an overall package that Trump claimed had generated $110 billion in sales over 10 years, brokered by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, early in the Trump administration. (In fact, less than $4 billion in arms deals had been in place when Trump made the claim, NPR reported, citing a Brookings Institution official.) After Trump left office, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, run by MBS, invested will put $2 billion in Kushner’s stock fund, according to The New York Times. If the financial elements of Trump’s decision are a bit difficult to track, the gulf aspects are pretty clear. Trump has long sought the prestige that comes with hosting professional tournaments on his courses. To date, the golf courses have hosted seven tournaments for major golf organizations. A few years ago, Trump’s Bedminister Club was set to host its first major tournament, a category that includes the Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA Championship. However, after Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the PGA moved the 2022 championship from Bedminster to a course in Oklahoma called Southern Hills Country Club. During the 2016 campaign, the PGA Tour moved a tournament from Trump’s Doral course in Florida to Mexico City. Although the tour once raised concerns about Trump’s provocative remarks about Muslims, the lack of a sponsor who could help foot the bill was the reason behind the decision, according to The Washington Post. Trump’s support for LIV could be an act of revenge against the American golf establishment. But if he chooses LIV, he won’t get the valuable attention that PGA Tour events attract. As of now, LIV has no broadcast contracts, so it won’t appear on TV. The tournaments can be viewed online, but as The New Yorker recently noted, viewership there was “deplorably low”. How will Trump summarize his experience with LIV? Financially, he won’t get all the publicity he might expect from another tour. However, by urging players to defect and side with LIV, he put a thumb in the eye of the forces that rejected him. Notable names recruited for LIV include Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. Trump’s support of LIV is likely to please MBS, Kushner’s investor who played the key role in LIV’s development. Best of all, for a man who owns golf courses, plays often, and loves to talk about the game, the LIV event offers Trump an opportunity to play with a pro in a Pro-Am match. Can you imagine him giving up?
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