LIV Golf’s “eagerness to pay” to have former President Donald Trump host tournaments at his resorts is “just one more example of the ties between the Saudis and the Trump family,” according to a front-page piece by Eric Lipton of the N.Y. TIMES. At the same time, the investment firm set up by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, with $2B in funding from the same Saudi sovereign wealth fund that has “bankrolled the LIV Golf league, has been accelerating its deal making in recent months” in the U.S. and abroad. Lipton noted that as of the end of last year, the Trump Organization had “sold or lost branding deals” with six hotels around the world, leaving the family with only three city-center hotels. The rest of its hospitality industry holdings worldwide are “almost entirely built around golf courses." A “jump in golf revenues” at Trump National Bedminster and Doral has coincided with the decision by LIV Golf to “begin holding tournaments at Trump family venues.” Attracting professional golf has “long been a goal of the former president,” who has otherwise “largely been snubbed by major professional golf organizations” such as the PGA of America. LIV Golf played three tournaments at Trump courses last year, in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia -- more than any other golf course brand worldwide. The Trump Organization and LIV Golf both declined to say what share of these revenues the Trump family gets or what other payments it receives. But Lipton wrote the “indirect revenues for the Trump family could be considerable” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/3).
