The presence of former President Donald Trump, who often touted America first, was ubiquitous throughout the LIV Golf tournament.
Lynne Sladky/AP Photo
The presence of Trump, who often touted America first, was ubiquitous throughout the Saudi-funded tournament. Some attendees said they came, in part, to support the former president.
“I was in D.C. on Jan. 6th!” one young man shouted near a bar. Spectators donned “Make America Great Again” caps — or could buy MAGA hats for $36 a piece at the golf store.
With its massive amounts of prize money and unrelenting efforts to recruit top talent, LIV’s aim has been to challenge what it sees as the PGA’s monopoly. It’s done so through business means and cultural ones, too, pitching itself as the inverse of the stiff and stuffy version of a sport whose audience has long been affluent, older men.
As it’s pursued its mission, the tour has taken steps to manage the political fallout. It has enlisted political and public relations bigwigs to guide its communications. Those include a subsidiary of Edelman, the Arlington firm McKenna & Associates, which has provided management consulting services, and the lobbying firm Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures, which counts former Rep. Benjamin Quayle (R-Ariz.) among its partners.
One of the unstated goals of this outreach is to try and protect the tour from criticism that it’s a vehicle for the Saudi government to improve its image in America.
LIV rejected POLITICO’s request for media credentials, in effect blocking a reporter from watching Trump play and from attending official news conferences, on grounds that it was a sporting event that just happened to have a former president as a host.
“LIV Golf is a pro sports league and our event credentialing policy naturally prioritizes golf, sports, and local media,” the tour said when asked for a comment explaining its reasoning. “We regularly provide complimentary grounds passes to other media, even those who don’t wish to cover golf.”
But despite those efforts, it was difficult to keep any real distance between the golf and the political climate while at Doral. Trump, for one, told reporters Thursday at LIV’s pro-am round that the PGA had made a mistake in its dealings with the Saudis, calling those behind LIV “very good people with unlimited money.”
And nearby earlier that day, 9/11 Justice — an organization founded by families of Sept. 11 victims — called for LIV Golf and those associated with the tour to register as agents of Saudi Arabia under the foreign influence law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In a letter to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, also called for congressional hearings on Saudi influence efforts in the states.
For months, the group has protested the golf tour, pointing to connections between the Saudi kingdom and the 2001 attacks. In a national ad timed with the Doral championship, 9/11 Justice accused the Saudi government of “using oil profits to fund exhibition golf, hoping to distract you from their policies of oppressing women, murdering journalists, and supporting the 9/11 terrorists.” At the press conference Thursday, Dennis McGinley, who lost his brother in the attacks, called LIV Golf “Death Golf.”
Pat McCabe protests the LIV Golf tournament just outside Trump National Doral.
