LIV Golf, the Saudi Arabia-backed league, announced on Friday that it would hold a tournament in August at a Trump-family-owned club in New Jersey, underscoring the growing financial ties between the Saudi government and the president’s family during his second term.
The tournament at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster will be the latest in at least half a dozen events that the breakaway golf league has held at Trump resorts in the United States in the past four years. The organization is backed by the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund, valued at nearly $1 trillion.
Besides events at Bedminster, the golf league has held annual tournaments at the Trump Doral resort in Miami. The Trump Organization profits from fees it charges and the business it gains from thousands of ticket-buying fans who attend the events.
Asked this month about his family’s business with enterprises funded by foreign governments, President Trump said he saw no ethical reason to hold it in check. “I have a very honest family,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “Why wouldn’t I let them do things?”
The Trump family’s ties to the Saudi government have expanded at the same time the president has pursued an alliance with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s autocratic ruler. The crown prince was a global pariah after the killing of a journalist in 2018 — part of a brutal crackdown on political dissent — but gradually made his way back to the world stage.
In November, after Prince Mohammed’s first visit to Washington in seven years, Mr. Trump said he planned to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia despite concerns from national security officials that a sale could create an opportunity for China to steal the planes’ advanced technology. He told the crown prince then: “What an honor it is to be your friend.”
Since Mr. Trump was re-elected, Dar Global, a business partner of the Trump Organization closely linked to the Saudi government, has announced billions of dollars of Trump-branded developments in Saudi Arabia.
This month, Dar Global unveiled a $7 billion deal to put up a Trump-branded hotel and 18-hole championship golf course in the historic city of Diriyah. The project there, one of the country’s largest government-owned developments, will also include luxury homes called “Trump Mansions.”
A $3 billion project in Jeddah will include a mixed-use Trump Plaza. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is also a major backer of Affinity Partners, the investment firm run by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law. It contributed $2 billion to the company in 2021, about six months after the end of Mr. Trump’s first term.
Asked about the family’s financial ties with the Saudi government in November, Mr. Trump said he had “nothing to do with the family business.”
He added: “What my family does is fine. They do business all over. They’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia, actually. I’m sure they could do a lot.”
Julie Tate contributed research.
Sharon LaFraniere is an investigative reporter focusing on the Trump administration.
The post Saudi Arabia-Backed LIV Golf to Hold Tournament at the Trumps’ New Jersey Resort appeared first on New York Times.
