It’s not often that a Golfweek piece sets the tone for the actual week, but on Saturday, the primary journal of hitting little balls with sticks reported that the nascent LIV Golf circuit was still experiencing difficulties. The tournament schedule is not full. The lineup of high-profile golfers that LIV needs to establish itself as a legitimate rival to the 93-year-old PGA Tour has not materialized. The team-based structure of LIV has failed to generate the rivalries that the game’s developers believed would increase interest in the product.
However, these fears may be insignificant. This is because a court case in California, where LIV has launched an antitrust claim against the PGA, has gone in a direction that LIV detests. While defending itself against this lawsuit, the PGA has sought to compel discovery into the true origins of the fund covering LIV’s substantial expenses. During the trial, a slip of the tongue by a LIV attorney disclosed that the fund owns 93% of LIV Golf and pays all of its expenses.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the chairman and governing officer of this fund. Bin Salman pays all expenses and assumes all risks for LIV Golf. Who, though, is making a profit?
How many millions does bin Salman transfer to Donald Trump via LIV? We cannot say.
It was never a secret that at least a portion of LIV Golf was owned by Saudi sources, and this has been a cause for worry from the tour’s inception. Nonetheless, as a private firm, its internal ownership and finance were disguised until the ongoing legal action revealed precisely how little other parties are involved. Bin Salman does not simply own 93% of the trip on paper. He is footing the entire bill.
In response to efforts to enforce disclosure regarding LIV’s finances, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) claimed that it could not be compelled to disclose anything. Because they are an “organ of the Saudi state” with “foreign sovereign immunity,” they are exempt from speaking.
That does not exactly improve the situation.
According to Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, “the revelation that a fund controlled by Crown Prince MBS funded LIV Golf in full indicates that MBS has paid Donald Trump untold millions via their mutual corporate covers over the past two years.” She also emphasizes that the repercussions of this extend far beyond golf and Trump’s financial gain. “The national security implications of payments from a grotesquely abusive foreign tyrant to a U.S. president who granted him unprecedented favors are both stunning and dangerous,” said Whitson.
In 2018, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner visited bin Salman, who was seeking $1.8 billion to rescue his company from a disastrous real estate investment. At the time, there was widespread suspicion that Kushner, who later received a covert bailout, may have sold national security secrets to bin Salman, including the names of U.S. sources and Saudi dissidents.
In the same year, bin Salman had Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi kidnapped into a Saudi embassy, restrained, tortured, dissected, and burned to death. In that sequence. Later reports demonstrated that, despite his denial, Trump was aware of bin Salman’s role in the journalist’s gruesome killing.
The confidential materials discovered in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office in 2022 included nuclear secrets from a foreign country. Numerous sources claim that this intelligence pertains to the Iranian nuclear program, which would be of direct interest to bin Salman.
Still, Mohammed bin Salman pays millions to Donald Trump. How many millions are there? We cannot say. What did bin Salman receive in return from Trump? We cannot say.
But Golfweek shouldn’t be a source of disclosures.
This week’s episode of The Downballot opens out with the Democrats’ massive flip of a crucial seat in the Virginia state Senate, which marks the beginning of the election season. Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard analyze what Aaron Rouse’s victory means for November when every legislative seat will be up for election (abortion is still the top topic!).
They also discuss major developments in two U.S. Senate races: California, where Rep. Katie Porter recently became the first Democrat to launch a campaign despite Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s indecision regarding her future, and Michigan, where veteran Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow recently announced her retirement.
