Relatives of those killed on September 11 are urging former President Donald J. Trump to cancel a Saudi-backed golf tournament to be held this month at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
In a letter dated Sunday, members of the 9/11 Justice group requested a meeting with Mr. Trump and urged him not to host the event, which was scheduled to run from July 29 to 31, noting that Trump blamed Saudi Arabia for the attack.
“We just cannot understand how you agree to accept money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s golf league to host their tournament on your golf course, and that in the shadow of Ground Zero in New Jersey, which lost more than 700 residents during the attacks,” they wrote in the letter.
“It is incomprehensible to us that a former president of the United States would put our loved ones aside for personal financial gain,” they wrote to Mr Trump, who is expected to run for president again in 2024. your business relationship with the Saudi golf league and will agree to meet with us.”
In the letter, the group noted that in February 2016, Mr. Trump told Fox News, “Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis. It was Saudi. Look at Saudi Arabia.” He continued: “The people came, most of the people came from Saudi Arabia. They were not from Iraq.”
An email sent to 9/11 Justice was not immediately returned on Sunday. Messages left in Mr. Trump in Bedminster, and with a spokesperson for Mr. Trump, were also not immediately answered.
The Saudi Arabia-sponsored golf competition is part of a campaign by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to refresh the image of the kingdom in the eyes of the world.
The man who defeated Mr Trump in 2020, President Biden, has recently been criticized for his own connection to Saudi Arabia. Last week on a trip to the Middle East, Mr. Biden punched Prince Mohammed, who was believed by the CIA to be responsible for the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Mr Biden said he confronted Prince Mohammed about the murder in a closed-door meeting with him; Saudi officials contradicted his account.