Trump says 'nobody's gotten to the bottom of 9/11' while hosting a Saudi-funded golf tournament
- Trump said "nobody's gotten to the bottom of 9/11" during a Saudi-backed golf tournament.
- Family members of 9/11 victims called on Trump to cancel the event at his Bedminster private club.
Former President Donald Trump said "nobody's gotten to the bottom of 9/11" when asked about the protests against a Saudi-backed golf tournament being hosted at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
"Nobody's gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have, as to the maniacs that did that horrible thing," Trump told ESPN during the LIV Golf pro-am at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. LIV is a new golf tour funded by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund — overseen by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump also went on to defend Saudi Arabia. "I've known these people for a long time in Saudi Arabia and they've been friends of mine for a long time," Trump said. "What they're doing for golf is so great."
Family members of 9/11 victims have spoken out against the tournament and called on Trump to cancel the event given its connections to Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 2001 terrorist attacks were Saudi nationals. The Saudi government has long maintained that it had no involvement in the attacks, but family members of victims, among others, have suggested otherwise.
The 9/11 Justice group, which is made up of family members of 9/11 victims, ripped into Trump for hosting the tournament.
"The evidence, Mr. Trump, is more clear than ever. The Saudi nation is largely responsible for the death of our loved ones and for this horrific attack on America. And you know it," the group wrote in a letter to Trump.
"We simply cannot understand how you could agree to accept money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's golf league to host their tournament at your golf course, and to do so in the shadows of Ground Zero in New Jersey, which lost over 700 residents during the attacks," the letter added. "It is incomprehensible to us that a former president of the United States would cast our loved ones aside for personal financial gain."
It's unclear whether Trump was alluding to Saudi involvement in 9/11 via his comments to ESPN on Thursday. The 9/11 terror attacks were coordinated by Al Qaeda, a terror group led by Osama bin Laden. In 2011, Navy SEALs killed bin Laden during a raid in Pakistan.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump blamed Saudi Arabia for the 9/11 attacks. "Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn't the Iraqis. It was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia," Trump said during a Fox News interview at the time. "Most of the people came from Saudi Arabia. They didn't come from Iraq," he added.
But during his presidency, Trump garnered close relations with the Saudi government, taking a controversial approach at a time when lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called for the US to reassess its ties with Riyadh.
Trump shielded Prince Mohammed from the backlash over the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, including by blocking or bypassing Congress as it sought to distance the US from the kingdom on issues like the Yemen war.
After Trump left the White House, the sovereign wealth fund overseen by Prince Mohammed invested $2 billion in a firm controlled by Jared Kushner — the former president's son-in-law. Kushner, who served as Trump's senior advisor in the White House, developed a close relationship with Prince Mohammed — the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.