BEDMINSTER, New Jersey — Former President Donald Trump isn’t just in the sand trap with Democrats over his business dealings with Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf, as some of his own supporters from the 9/11 survivor community also deem him out of bounds.
Some have even renounced their prior support for Trump altogether because of Saudi Arabia’s alleged ties to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and human rights abuses.
‘TRUMP GOOD, SAUDI BAD’: BEDMINSTER LOCALS GRAPPLE WITH LIV UPROAR
“President Trump said that he would do the right thing. He hasn’t done the right thing since, and he didn’t do the right thing now because it shows that he has the Saudi government taking money to the office for LIV,” Eddie Bracken, whose sister died in the twin towers, proclaimed during a protest Friday near Trump’s Bedminster golf resort as the first day of the LIV tournament got underway.
Bracken used to be a “big Trump supporter,” according to 9/11 Justice President Brett Eagleson, who organized a protest against LIV on Friday. But now, frustration with Trump’s embrace of LIV, which has funding from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has cemented Bracken’s conviction that he will never support Trump again.
“It’s our lives we live. They don’t. They killed our families. So I have to tell you something, Mr. Trump: You’re not my president,” Bracken continued. “Mr. Trump, you’re never going to be voted in again by me or any of my family members ever.”
The 9/11 community has plenty of people who worked in finance, law enforcement, or firefighting — workers with whom Republicans have historically performed well. Eagleson argued that Trump is costing the GOP backers in this area because of the LIV tournament.
“When 9/11 happened, it didn’t differentiate between Democrats or Republicans. You can poll this crowd behind me, and I guarantee you 50% of them are Republicans and 50% of Democrats,” he said during the protest Friday. “Trump is hemorrhaging Republican support over this, and we can’t understand why he’s doing it.”
Not all who have been rankled by Trump’s hosting of LIV are willing to bail on him like Bracken. Pete Troisi, whose close friend died on 9/11, said he remains a strong supporter of the president. He attended the protest Friday and adamantly disagrees with Trump’s placating of the Saudi-backed golf tournament, stressing that it runs counter to the America First agenda. However, he feels that the Democrats display a similar disposition toward the Saudis.
“This is about way more than hosting a golf outing that the Saudi Arabians were funding,” he told the Washington Examiner. “You got Joe Biden going to Saudi Arabia and fist-bumping the officials over there.”
To Bracken, the Democrats are a party of “evil communists,” and Trump is the best bet for keeping them at bay.
As a sparsely populated town of about 8,000 people, Bedminster is home to many Trump supporters and has voted for Republicans in the past. Some of the local Trump supporters in town voiced unease about his hosting of LIV.
“Trump good, Saudi bad,” a man at a local convenience shop in town told the Washington Examiner as he hopped into his truck. He declined to comment further on the issue.
But not all Trump supporters are peeved about LIV’s connections to Saudi Arabia.
“Why don’t you leave Donald alone?” a local man snapped back when approached for comment by the Washington Examiner. He claimed that he knows Trump personally and is irked by the uproar surrounding LIV but declined to elaborate further.
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The issue is not on everyone’s radar. Among the locals in Bedminster, including those who had Trump stickers on their cars, many turned down interviews with the Washington Examiner, claiming they didn’t know enough about the controversy.
The FBI has released multiple documents analyzing connections between Riyadh and the 9/11 hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi. The kingdom has denied responsibility for the attacks.
Trump has downplayed the backlash to LIV’s Saudi ties, insisting to reporters Thursday that “nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11.” The LIV tournament at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster began Friday and is slated to last through Sunday.
