Donald Trump shakes hands with MBS’s personal banker at Saudi LIV golf invitational in Bedminster

Donald Trump defended hosting the Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament at his Bedminster club on Thursday amid a backdrop of fury from 9/11 families, telling reporters ‘no one has gotten to the bottom’ of who is to blame for the attacks. 

Trump, battling the mid-morning heat in his signature MAGA hat and white polo shirt, teed-off at the pro-amateur event where he will be joined later by his son Eric, Caitlin Jenner, Charles Barkley and pro golfers Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson. 

He was spotted shaking hands with Yasir Al Rumayyan, Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s personal banker on the fairway. 

When asked about the controversy, told ESPN reporters: ‘Nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately. And they should have.’ Fifteen of the 19 terrorists involved in the attack were Saudi, including Osama bin Laden. 

Officially, the Saudi Arabian government has denied any involvement but the US spent months investigating whether it had any ties to the attacks. It was a fruitless investigation which was laid bare in declassified documents last year. 

The LIV series – a new venture launched by the Saudis to take on the PGA – is splitting the world of golf. 

Big names have been lured away from the PGA with lucrative contracts despite criticism from the public and politicians of Saudi Arabia’s track record. 

Among the most appalled are the families of 9/11 victims who are horrified that the event is not only welcome in America, but just 50 miles from Ground Zero. 

There is also outrage on behalf of murdered Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. 

But Trump – who was dumped by the PGA in 2021 after the Capitol riot – is shrugging off the scandal in exchange for what is unquestionably a handsome payout. He has not disclosed how much LIV is paying for use of Bedminster this weekend. 

The families of 9/11 victims vowed to protest outside the club this weekend after being left disappointed by Trump’s attempt to make peace. 

He had one of his aides contact the group to claim they were ‘near and dear’ to him. Brett Eagelson, the founder of 9/11 Justice, said the peace offering was of ‘little value’

‘We’re going to make it as painful as possible and unenjoyable as possible for those involved. We think that they need to know our feelings. 

‘I think it sets a precedent that money will erase wrongdoing, that’s what angers me the most,’ said Matthew Bocchi, who was nine when his father was killed in the attacks. 

Donald and Melania Trump last night stepped out to a backdrop of this mounting fury to welcome golfers and event organizers at a Manhattan party. 

Earlier this year the PGA moved to ban players who participate in LIV events and this month the Department of Justice opened an investigation into the PGA for anticompetitive behavior. 

The tour, backed by Saudi Arabia, has angered family members of 9/11 victims, who are horrified at the former president so publicly supporting the country which in-part funded the attacks.  

The terror mastermind, Osama bin Laden, was from a prominent Saudi family before setting up training camps in Afghanistan.

‘For Donald Trump, a former president of the United States to host the Saudi golf tournament, help it get off the ground 45 miles or 50 miles from Ground Zero, where 750 New Jerseyans were killed on that day, it is beyond comprehension,’ said Dennis McGinley, whose brother Daniel McGinley died in the attacks while working on the 89th floor of the South Tower.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘As 9/11 families we’ve had to grow thick skins over the last 21 years, but this really hurts. 

‘This one is really painful.’ 

Their group 9/11 Justice wrote a letter to the former president expressing their ‘deep pain and anger’ about 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 letter read. 

‘We ask for the opportunity to have some of our family members visit with you in the coming days to discuss our concerns in person with you and urge you to cease further business with the regime that was complicit in the murder of our loved ones.’

The letter continued: ‘It is incomprehensible to us, Mr. Trump, that a former president of the United States would cast our loved ones aside for personal financial gain. 

‘We hope you will reconsider your business relationship with the Saudi Golf League and will agree to meet with us.’

In a statement earlier this week, the National Press Club said: ‘We are revolted by the way the Saudi-funded LIV enterprise has followed the fist bump in the desert by shoving themselves onto golf courses and television screens.

‘We call on all Americans to see this unsavory attempt to minimize the grisly bone-saw attack on Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi for what it is – an attempt to sweep under the rug a brutal state-sponsored murder. 

‘We call on people of conscience to reject this tournament. Do not attend. Do not watch it on television. Let it fail.

‘That the tournament is being held at a course owned by former President Trump is, if possible, even more revolting. 

‘It reminds us that the former President bragged of distracting Congress from the murder, delaying the release of the final U.S. government report that concluded MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (and recipient of the fist-bump from President Biden) was most likely involved in planning and approving Jamal’s murder. 

‘And the tournament on the Trump course reminds us how Saudi Arabia finds ways to personally enrich Trump and his family – including $2 billion to his son in law.’  

Trump has however remained defiant, insisting that the LIV tournament is the future and that it will inevitably merge with the PGA or surpass it. 

‘All of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year,’ Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday morning. 

‘If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were. 

‘Good luck to all, and congratulations to really talented Cam Smith on his incredible WIN!’ 

Saudi Arabia has for two decades denied any involvement in the attacks, though 15 of the 19 men who hijacked and crashed four planes that day in New York City, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon were Saudi nationals.

The FBI released documents from its investigation, dubbed Operation Encore, in November 2021 after Biden ordered them to be declassified.

The Bureau had explored, among other things, whether three people including one Saudi Embassy official in the US had advanced knowledge of the attacks. 

An earlier memo released in September detailed the significant logistic support that two of the hijackers had received once within the country including ‘procuring living quarters and assistance with assimilating.’ 

McGinley said 9/11 Justice has not heard from anyone on Trump’s team since sending the letter. 

Trump’s track record with the Saudi government is complicated. 

In 2016, he told FOX News that Saudi Arabia ‘blew up the World Trade Center. 

‘Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis. It was Saudis. Take a look at Saudi Arabia, open up the documents,’ he told the network at the time. The people came, most of the people came from Saudi Arabia. 

‘They didn’t come from Iraq,’ Trump said in 2016 on Fox News. 

But once in office, he remained friendly with the regime and even claimed to ‘save’ MBS’s ‘a**’ after the CIA concluded he had ordered Khashoggi’s 2018 murder. 

Trump allegedly told journalist Bob Woodward: ‘I saved his a**. I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to stop them.’ 

He referred to the Saudis as ‘an important ally’ and told how he’d jokingly instructed members of Congress to ‘let them trade with Russia instead’. 

‘Let them buy a thousand planes from Russia instead of the United States. Fellas, you’ve got to be smart,’ he said. 

When Khashoggi was murdered and evidence grew that the killing had been ordered by the Saudi government, Trump played a safe hand publicly. 

He said he was ‘very angry’ that Khashoggi had been killed, but  claimed ‘nobody had pointed the finger’ at MBS or his regime. 

Privately, he told Woodward: ‘He says he didn’t do it…he says very strongly that he didn’t do it. Bob, they spent $400 billion over a fairly short period of time.’ 

He later supported arms deals with the kingdom despite its proxy war in Yemen and refused to abandon his relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – despite global outrage over the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  

McGinley was on the phone with his brother before the plane plowed into the tower. 

Daniel had just moved into his ‘dream house’ in Ridgewood, New Jersey and he and his wife Peggy were raising their five children there. 

He said his brother was crying on the phone and telling him, ‘I just want to get home to Peggy and the kids.’ 

‘I’ve been haunting this conversation for the last 21 years,’ McGinley said. 

‘One of the golfers said in their interviews, he’s like, “Look, you know, we’re just trying to provide for our families.” Yeah, my brother Danny and 2,900 other people were just trying to provide for their families as well. And that was all horrifically taken away from them on 9/11.’ 

The LIV has so far held two major events, with its third planned for the Bedminster tournament. Trump will also host the season-ending Team Championship at the Trump National Doral Miami.