Donald Trump has spent much of the last two decades saying deeply unfortunate things about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. As regular readers may recall, the Republican has claimed, for example, that he “tried to help” at Ground Zero in New York the day of the attacks, but there’s no evidence of any such efforts. In fact, on 9/11, the future president seemed principally focused on how the destruction of the Twin Towers affected his ability to boast about the height of one of his nearby properties.
Fifteen years later, as part of first presidential campaign, Trump frequently referenced the 9/11 attacks, though as The Washington Post reported at the time, “[S]everal of Trump’s statements about what he witnessed that day appear to be greatly exaggerated or false.”
In 2019, the then-president delivered White House remarks claiming that he’d predicted bin Laden’s rise in a book, and insinuating that 9/11 could’ve been prevented if only more people “would have listened” to Trump — the rhetoric was both demonstrably untrue and plainly obscene — and in 2021, he downplayed Osama bin Laden’s significance.
This week, the Republican made matters just a bit worse. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday defended hosting a Saudi-funded tournament at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, by casting doubt on any connection between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Asked to respond to harsh criticism from families of Sept. 11 victims who are urging Americans to protest the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament, Trump suggested there was still uncertainty surrounding the attacks.
“Well, nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have,” Trump told ESPN.
For those who may be unfamiliar with this controversy, let’s briefly recap how we arrived at this point.
In the United States, the PGA Tour is the dominant player in professional golf, but it’s now facing competition from a Saudi-backed league called LIV. As you’d imagine, this shook up the sport, especially as some prominent players left the PGA to join its new rival.
All of this took on a political dimension when Trump not only encouraged professional golfers to abandon the PGA and join the Saudi-backed enterprise, the Republican also said his venue in Bedminster, N.J., would host an upcoming LIV tournament.
The families of those killed on 9/11 were not pleased.
“We simply cannot understand how you could agree to accept money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s golf league to host their tournament at your golf course, and to do so in the shadows of ground zero in New Jersey, which lost over 700 residents during the attacks,” members of the group 9/11 Justice wrote in a July 17 letter.
The criticisms intensified in the days that followed, leading to Trump finally address the matter yesterday. It was against this backdrop that the former president said, “Well, nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have.” Stepping back, there are a few angles to a story like this to keep in mind. The first is the Republican’s petty motivations: Trump’s Bedminster venue was supposed to host a lucrative PGA event, but the arrangement was scrapped in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack. Trump, true to form, is now seeking revenge, and the rival league offers him an opportunity to punish his perceived foes. Second, there’s also the fact that Trump, who made his first overseas trip as president to Riyadh, has made little effort to hide his Saudi support, including boasting to Bob Woodward about “saving“ Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from scrutiny after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. “I saved his ass,” the former president added. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.” And third, Trump apparently wants the money. “I don’t know much about the 9/11 families,” the Republican told The Wall Street Journal this week. Perhaps not, but they’re apparently learning quite a bit about him.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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