Trump: “Nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11″

The LIV Golf tournament’s third event will be held at former US President Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster later today. Protests have been planned for the controversial event, as families of 9/11 victims struggle to understand why Trump would accept money to host the Saudi-backed tour. When talking about the protests and criticism of the event, Trump brushed it off and said, “nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11″.

This is a change of tune from his comments in 2016. In an interview with Fox News, he said this: “Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraquis - it was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Open the documents.”

What we do know is that 15 of the 19 hijackers of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were Saudi nationals, and so was Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Though the Saudi government has always denied any involvement, a 2017 lawsuit revealed they might have funded a trial run for the attacks. In September of 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration released a report which tied two Saudi nationals (living in the US at the time) to the 9/11 attacks.

Trump’s support and hosting of the event is under fire for its connection to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, too. LIV Golf is funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is led by bin Salman. Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered at the Istanbul Saudi consulate in 2019, and it is now widely understood that bin Salman ordered the attack.

Trump, however, ignored the links to Saudi Arabia’s involvement in both 9/11 and the murder of Khashoggi, and instead spoke about celebrating.

“There are a lot of really great people out here today,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a lot of fun, and we’re going to celebrate, and the money’s going to charity. A lot of money is going to charity.”