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Viral video compares crowd size at Trump and Biden midterm events in Pennsylvania

Viral video compares crowd size at Trump and Biden midterm events in Pennsylvania

Donald Trump and his supporters are famously obsessed with crowd size, and a video has gone viral comparing the audiences between recent rallies Mr Trump and Joe Biden held in Pennsylvania this week.

“Donald Trump and Joe Biden Both held rallies in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania this week,” reporter Benny Johnson, of conservative TV network Newsmax, wrote on Twitter in a post sharing the clip. “Here is what they looked like back to back. Incredible.”

The video, which has been viewed roughly 2.3m times, shows a packed house at Mr Trump’s rally in a stadium on Saturday, compared to a more modest crowd at the president’s speech on Tuesday in Wilkes-Barre.

Mr Trump, in his first major address since the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, indeed brought numerous supporters to the Mohegan Sun Area, which appeared to be at its capacity of 8,000 seats.

The former president used the “Save America” rally – nominally a speech to support Republicans seeking office in Pennsylvania like aspiring US senator Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano – to attack federal law enforcement and make unfounded claims about Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman using illegal drugs.

Mr Trump accused the Biden administration of “weaponising the FBI and Justice Department like never ever before” and described the court-authorised search of his property as the FBI “breaking into the homes of their political opponents”.

“The FBI and the justice department have become vicious monsters, controlled by radical-left scoundrels, lawyers and the media, who tell them what to do,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Biden was back in his home state this week as part of his own run of Pennsylvania midterm events.

The Biden speech shown in the comparison video took place on Tuesday in a gymnasium at Wilkes University, a small college with a student body of just over 2,000.

At the event, Mr Biden criticised Republicans for claiming to be the party of law and order, while backing the Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6.

“So let me say this to my Maga Republican friends in Congress: Don’t tell me you support law enforcement if you won’t condemn what happened on the 6th,” he said. “Don’t tell me. Can’t do it.”

He continued: “For God’s sake, whose side are you on?  Whose side are you on? Look, you’re either on the side of a mob or the side of the police.  You can’t be pro-law enforcement and pro-insurrection. You can’t be a party of law and order and call the people who attacked the police on January 6th ‘patriots’. You can’t do it.”

Two days later, Mr Biden gave a primetime address in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Constitution was drafted.

“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” he said, adding that the man he defeated nearly two years ago – former president Mr Trump – and his “Maga Republican” allies “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic”.

“That is a threat to this country,” he continued.

It’s not the first time crowd-size comparisons are part of the political conversation.

Perhaps the first scandal of the Trump White House involved the then-president and his aides making dubious claims about the crowd size at Mr Trump’s January 2017 inauguration.

Mr Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway told incredulous NBC host Chuck Todd at the time that the debunked statements weren’t wrong, but based on “alternative facts”.

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Documents show how Trump landed Lincoln Memorial for Fox News event

Documents show how Trump landed Lincoln Memorial for Fox News event
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In the spring of 2020, National Park Service personnel were preparing for an event President Donald Trump was holding with Fox News to address the nascent covid-19 pandemic from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, site of historic protests and inaugural concerts.

But, first, they had to brief Trump on the plans.

“As of now we’re looking at an event at base of Lincoln from 6-8 or so Sunday night. No event in chamber. I will see if that holds once POTUS is briefed later today,” Jeff Reinbold, the Park Service’s superintendent for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, wrote in an April 28, 2020, email to other agency officials.

By the next morning, the virtual “town hall” was no longer to be held at the base, the documents show. Trump’s two-hour sit-down with Fox News anchors would take place inside the memorial’s main chamber, on the landing in the shadow of the marble statue of a seated Lincoln. With the exception of an annual birthday tribute to Lincoln, federal regulations bar events from being held in that area.

The email is among hundreds of pages of newly released government documents that help fill in the picture of how officials from multiple government agencies worked to engineer the event at the Lincoln, one of the many norm-defying moments of the Trump presidency. They show that the Park Service provided security personnel at a cost of nearly $150,000 and that a U.S. Secret Service official apologized to colleagues for the planning process, calling it a “$#!t show.”

After the event, officials noted that the memorial itself — then 98 years old — had sustained scratches and gouges in its pink marble floor, according to a final memorandum.

In the end, the Trump-appointed interior secretary, David Bernhardt, relaxed the rules by finding that the venue was appropriate, given the president’s need to communicate with the American people during a “grave time of national crisis.” That finding has been previously reported.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice, a progressive group that acquired the documents through a public-records request, said she believes Bernhardt exceeded his authority and allowed Trump to use “the Lincoln Memorial as his stage set.”

“They’re trying to find a way, it looks like, to give him the chamber when there is no legal way to give him the chamber,” she said.

Verheyden-Hilliard’s group often litigates on behalf of those seeking access to public spaces, pressing the government to properly allow free-speech activities and protests along Pennsylvania Avenue and elsewhere.

Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the Park Service, did not address specific questions from The Washington Post. He said in a statement that the agency monitored the activity associated with the town hall, as it does any event not sponsored by the Park Service.

A spokesman for the Secret Service declined to comment. A Trump spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Bernhardt said in an interview that he stood by the decision and that government lawyers had approved it. At the time, federal officials and the nation were in the early stages of learning how deadly and transmissible the novel coronavirus was. Mass business closures enacted weeks before had forced layoffs. The unemployment rate had quadrupled.

“I felt that it was an important moment for the country,” Bernhardt told The Post.

On May 3, 2020, at the opening of the town hall, Trump greeted Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum by saying, “We never had a more beautiful set than this did we?” according to a transcript.

The hosts asked about criticism that had already surfaced about the use of the memorial as the site for the event.

“What can you criticize? It’s — I don’t think it’s ever been done, what we’re doing tonight here,” Trump said. “And I think it’s great for the American people to see.”

All presidents use national parks as backdrops for photo opportunities and promotional events, said Kristen Brengel of the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit organization that works to protect the national park system. For his 2009 inaugural, President Barack Obama hosted a concert on the steps of the memorial and was photographed in the chamber. Four years later, he gave a speech on the steps as part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

But, by siting the town hall inside the memorial, with Fox News, Brengel said, the Trump administration held an event in defiance of federal regulations in a space that is hallowed ground to many Americans.

“This wasn’t a national emergency to do an event inside the Lincoln Memorial,” she said. “This was the commercial use of a park site in the middle of a pandemic.”

On April 28, the day before the event was announced, officials began sharing early information about it with one another, according to the documents. Reinbold told colleagues that it was being planned for the front steps of the memorial and directed a Fox News staffer to apply for the necessary permit.

Reinbold mentioned that the plans could change after they were presented to Trump that day.

Security personnel at the U.S. Park Police and the Secret Service began to make staffing considerations on short notice. A Park Police official justified the need to call in extra officers on the weekend by citing an emergency order issued weeks earlier allowing for “mission critical adjustments” to help the nation respond to the pandemic.

A Secret Service official helping to staff the event apologized for the process. “Sorry this is such a $#!t show. Will have answers shortly,” wrote the official, whose name is redacted in the documents.

The next day, with the event moved into the memorial’s chamber, Fox News would not need a permit after all, Reinbold wrote. He told colleagues it was out of his hands. “They are using the site as a venue and this is not a co-sponsored or NPS event in any way,” he wrote on April 29.

Trump and Fox announced that the event would take place four days later, on a Sunday evening.

Fox News began making arrangements. A Fox staffer sent Park Service officials a photo taken from the 1963 March on Washington, shot from behind Lincoln’s statue looking out at the entrance, that she hoped to replicate.

“We are also looking to achieve the camera shot in the attached picture,” she wrote on April 30.

An inscription marks the spot where King spoke, 18 steps from the top landing of the memorial.

On May 3, Bernhardt issued a “record of determination,” citing the growing pandemic and the need for the president to communicate with Americans as reasoning to allow the event. “In this grave time of national crisis, the Memorial is a uniquely appropriate place from which our President can communicate an official message to the American people,” Bernhardt wrote.

Verheyden-Hilliard rejected the idea that the interior secretary had such authority. “All they are really doing is putting window dressing on something that is clearly illegal,” she said.

In response to questions from The Post, Fox News Media said in a statement that the station had been approached by the Trump administration and “agreed to moderate the May 2020 event in an effort to provide critical information to the American public.”

“The location of the Lincoln Memorial was proposed by the administration and Fox News worked directly with the National Park Service to ensure the production followed every protocol to protect the space,” the company said.

A Park Service memo after the event said the production crew had “generally followed previously agreed to requirements.” But it also said: “Inside the Lincoln Chamber there are several scratches and gouges on the flooring. Photo documentation taken and referred to the park’s senior management.”

No photos of damage were among the documents released. Fox News said it was unaware of any damage. “At no point was the network made aware of any damages as a result of the event,” the company said.

Litterst said in the statement that the damage was “addressed in-house by the park’s conservators.”

In correspondence in the days after the event, about how to respond to reporters’ questions, Litterst made clear to colleagues that he did not want to give the impression that the agency would allow such an event to take place again: “I think it’s a good opportunity to slam the door on anyone who thinks they can make a similar ask to do an interview in the chamber.”

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9/11 Families Call on Trump to Cancel Saudi-Backed Golf Event

9/11 Families Call on Trump to Cancel Saudi-Backed Golf Event

Relatives of people killed on Sept. 11 are urging former President Donald J. Trump to cancel a Saudi-backed golf tournament set to be held this month at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

In a letter dated Sunday, members of the group 9/11 Justice asked to meet with Mr. Trump and urged him not to host the event, set for July 29 to 31, noting that Mr. Trump has blamed Saudi Arabia for the attack.

“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,” they wrote in the letter.

“It is incomprehensible to us that a former president of the United States would cast our loved ones aside for personal financial gain,” they wrote to Mr. Trump, who is expected to run for president again in 2024. “We hope you will reconsider your business relationship with the Saudi golf league and will agree to meet with us.”

In the letter, the group noted that Mr. Trump told Fox News in February 2016: “Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis. It was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia.” He went on to say: “The people came, most of the people came from Saudi Arabia. They didn’t come from Iraq.”

An email sent to 9/11 Justice was not immediately returned on Sunday. Messages left at Mr. Trump’s club in Bedminster, and with a spokesman for Mr. Trump, were also not immediately answered.

The Saudi-sponsored golf league is part of a campaign by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to refresh the kingdom’s image in the eyes of the world.

The man who defeated Mr. Trump in 2020, President Biden, has recently faced criticism for his own connection to Saudi Arabia. Last week during a Middle East trip, Mr. Biden fist-bumped Prince Mohammed, who was judged responsible by the C.I.A. for the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mr. Biden said he confronted Prince Mohammed about the killing during a closed-door meeting with him; Saudi officials contradicted his account.

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Mickelson signs up for three events without saying he’ll play

Mickelson signs up for three events without saying he’ll play

Phil Mickelson has signed up for the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, and his manager asked the PGA Tour for permission to play in a Saudi-funded golf tournament outside London without saying whether Mickelson will play any of them.

“Phil currently has no concrete plans on when and where he will play,” Mickelson’s longtime manager, Steve Loy of Sportfive, said in a statement. “Any actions taken are in no way a reflection of a final decision made, but rather to keep all options open.”

Monday was the deadline for players to ask for a conflicting event release from the PGA Tour to play in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational on June 9-11 in England.

It also was the deadline to register for the PGA Championship, to be played May 19-22 at Southern Hills. Mickelson is exempt as the defending champion, winning at Kiawah Island last year at age 50 to become the oldest major champion.

That also gave him a five-year exemption to the U.S. Open, which this year will be played outside Boston on June 16-19.

It was the first word from the Mickelson camp since Feb. 22, when Mickelson apologized for explosive remarks in a book excerpt by Alan Shipnuck in which he disparaged the Saudis behind Greg Norman’s attempt at a rival league and said he wanted leverage against the “obnoxious greed” of the PGA Tour.

He has not played since the Saudi International on Feb. 6, even skipping the Masters.

Meanwhile, Norman announced the season-ending team championship for his LIV Golf Invitational series would be at Trump National Doral Miami, the first tournament at the “Blue Monster” since the PGA Tour moved a World Golf Championship to Mexico in 2017.

It would be the second course owned by former president Donald Trump to play host to one of the LIV Golf events run by Norman. Trump Bedminster in New Jersey is scheduled to hold a tournament the last weekend in July.

Norman’s plan for a rival league suffered a big setback in February when Mickelson, viewed as a chief recruiter for Norman, was quoted by Shipnuck as saying the Saudis were “scary mother[expletives] to get involved with,” and that he was working with Norman to get leverage for changes he wanted on the PGA Tour.

“We know they killed [Washington Post reporter Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates,” Mickelson told Shipnuck, whose unauthorized biography on Mickelson is to be released next month.

Mickelson also said he recruited three other top players and they paid attorneys to write the operating agreement for the proposed league.

Within days, the biggest names in golf – some of whom had been contemplating taking the guaranteed Saudi riches – publicly stated support for the PGA Tour.

Still unclear is who will be playing in the LIV Golf events.

None of the top 10 players in the world has expressed interested in Norman’s venture. Norman since has said the rival league he envisioned will be put on hold for two years. Instead, he said players could sign up for any of the eight tournaments, which offer US$20-million in prize money with an additional US$5-million purse for the team aspect.

Even then, PGA Tour players – no matter their world ranking – cannot apply for conflicting event releases for the five tournaments planned for the United States.

The inaugural LIV event is June 9-11 outside London. Robert Garrigus, who is No. 1,053 in the world, is among those who have asked for a release with hopes of playing.

In an interview earlier this month with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, Norman said with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund behind LIV Golf, the carrot would be hard to resist.

“Quite honestly, it doesn’t matter who plays, we’re going to put the event on,” Norman told the The Telegraph. “There’s a $4-million first prize. I hope a kid who’s 350th in the world wins. It’ll change his life, his family’s life. And then a few of our events will go by and the top players will see someone winning $6-million, $8-million, and say, ‘Enough is enough, I know I can beat these guys week in week out with my hands tied behind my back.’”

The team championship, in which 12 four-man teams compete for a US$50-million purse, is scheduled for Oct. 27-30 at Trump National Doral Miami.

Details and players have not been announced.

Doral held a PGA Tour event from 1962 through 2016. It was a World Golf Championship for the final 10 years until the search for a new title sponsorship led to the WGC moving to Chapultepec Golf Club in Mexico City.

Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee for president when Cadillac chose not to renew as tournament sponsor and the PGA Tour left Doral for Mexico and the sponsorship of Grupo Salinas.

“I hope they have kidnapping insurance,” Trump said at the time.

Trump was a big personality as the new owner of Doral, even before he ran for office, and the tour said it was difficult to find a corporate sponsor willing to pay upward of US$15-million a year to share the stage.

“I think it’s more Donald Trump is a brand – a big brand,” former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in announcing the Mexico deal. “And when you’re asking a company to invest millions of dollars in branding a tournament, and they’re going to share that brand with the host, it’s a difficult conversation.”

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Melania Trump Event Called Off After Officials Question Fund-Raising

Melania Trump Event Called Off After Officials Question Fund-Raising

“Tulips and Topiaries will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience — an afternoon of sophisticated elegance set in elaborate, lush floral gardens designed to inspire giving, hope, possibility, and dreams,” a news release her office put out in January said. She later sent out a notice on her new social media account with Parler.

But Mrs. Trump, in a statement to The New York Times, has said she was not organizing the event, and was just a participant. (Ms. Moffet said the state had separately concluded that Mrs. Trump had not solicited funds in way that would require her to register.) She declined to address whether money raised at the planned event would be used to pay her personally, and instead criticized questions about the event.

“The media has created a narrative whereby I am trying to act in an illegal or unethical manner,” she wrote in a statement last month. “That portrayal is simply untrue and adversely affects the children I hope to support. Those who attack my initiatives and create the appearance of impropriety are quite literally dream killers. They have canceled the hopes and dreams of children by trying to cancel me.”

Both Melania Trump and former President Donald J. Trump have aggressively raised private money in the year since he left public office. Mr. Trump has published a $75 coffee-table book, gone on an arena tour, held an event with Whip Fundraising last December, and is behind a new social media company.

Even as Mr. Trump holds political rallies, he has carved out time for for-profit events. On March 19, he is speaking at an arena in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where “presidential” level tickets are selling for nearly $3,000.

Mrs. Trump held an online auction in January to sell a hat she had worn at the White House in 2018. More recently, she has started what she says will be a series of sales of unique virtual photographs — so-called NFTs — of her and Mr. Trump at White House events, a promotion she started on Presidents’ Day that will generate as much as $500,000 in revenues if all 10,000 of the items sell out. So far, her website suggests more than 6,100 of these items have been sold for $50 a piece.

Mr. Keltner on Thursday declined to provide a new date or location for the rescheduled event. The website that had offered tickets to the Naples event has been taken down, a move Mr. Keltner attributed in part to bots that he said had been attacking the site “nonstop.”

Shane Goldmacher contributed reporting.

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Trump properties in talks to host lucrative Saudi golf events

Trump properties in talks to host lucrative Saudi golf events

One of the people familiar with the matter said Trump had spoken to Greg Norman, the head of LIV Golf Investments, about having his properties involved in the tour.

A spokeswoman for LIV Golf Investments declined to comment. Eric Trump, the former president’s son, and a Trump Organization spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. The Saudi embassy in Washington also did not respond to comment requests.

Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump’s political action committee, offered a statement only touting the former president’s golf courses when asked about the talks.

“It certainly sounds possible given the fact that President Trump owns some of the most beautiful and renowned golf courses in the world — from the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes, to the majestic rolling hills of Bedminster and, of course, the iconic Doral property,” he said.

The financial terms of the proposed deal are unclear, but the events would undoubtedly provide revenue for Trump through the Saudis, who are making a fierce bid to recruit PGA Tour players and launch a series of golf tournaments.

As president, Trump frequently defended the Saudi government even as it committed a wide range of human right abuses, including the 2018 murder of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the imprisonment and execution of gay citizens. Trump’s first overseas trip as president was to Saudi Arabia, and he regularly praised the country’s wealth and power, even as some advisers pushed him to take a tougher line on the country.

Such a deal would also provide a measure of revenge for Trump against the PGA Tour, an organization that he courted for years but that later enraged him when politics came between them. While Trump campaigned in the summer of 2016, the PGA Tour announced it was yanking its elite World Golf Championship tournament from Doral and moving it to Mexico City. Trump also lost the PGA championship from his course in New Jersey last year, as the organization pulled its event days after the Jan. 6 insurrection by a pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol.

Doral has been the biggest revenue generator of any of Trump’s golf properties, but he borrowed heavily to acquire and renovate it, and the 643-room resort suffered financially during his presidency.

Trump, working closely with his daughter Ivanka, bought the 650-acre resort set among business parks and homes in 2012 for a reported $150 million and planned $250 million in renovations. He borrowed $125 million from Deutsche Bank to do it and vowed on Twitter that “within two years it will be the best resort in the country.”

But from 2015 to 2017, the club’s revenue fell from $92 million to $75 million — an 18 percent drop, according to company financial documents and Trump’s government disclosure forms. Operating income — the amount left over after expenses were paid — fell even faster, prompting Trump’s own tax consultant to tell Miami-Dade County officials in 2018 that the course had been “severely underperforming” competing clubs. Revenue suffered an additional 40 percent drop in 2020, when pandemic travel restrictions were in place for most of the year.

His company has been trying to revive Doral since his presidency ended. Last year, Florida legislators passed legislation easing the path for his company to pursue a future casino license for Doral, and last month his company announced that it would attempt to build 2,300 homes there.

It’s difficult to say how such a deal would affect Trump financially. Professional golf organizations pay rental fees to courses where they hold events but also impose sometimes expensive obligations and responsibilities as part of that, said Larry Hirsh, president of Golf Property Analysts in Philadelphia.

“It’s widely believed that the only clubs that make any significant money are those that host the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Ryder Cup,” he said.

Hirsh said that Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights could also prompt some members of Trump’s club to cancel their memberships, which could hurt the value of the course long term.

“It depends on how much money [the league] is willing to pay, but it also depends on how many people will say they won’t be a part of it,” he said.

The Saudi tour has not announced any sites or dates for its events. But in a recent sports podcast interview, PGA Tour player Kramer Hickok said 17 PGA players had committed to the tour already, and he said he expected 10 to 14 of the events to be in the United States. He could not be reached immediately for comment.

Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law, was spotted on the sidelines of a Saudi golf event earlier this month. Bloomberg News reported that Kushner has sought backing from the $500 billion Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with other government-controlled funds in the region.” A spokesman for Kushner did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Longtime professional golfer Phil Mickelson has come under fire in recent days for saying that he was willing to overlook the country’s human rights record and consider supporting the new league. Many critics have said the Saudi government is attempting to buttress its standing by holding high-profile sporting events.

“We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson was quoted as saying by Alan Shipnuck, a biographer who wrote a book about him. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

PGA Tour officials have closely watched efforts by the Saudis to recruit its players, worried about the Saudi league luring away some of the tour’s players with the promise of higher purses. But most of the league’s marquee players have not left, and some have been critical of Mickelson, who has helped with recruitment efforts. The PGA declined to comment on Trump’s talks with the Saudi league.

When the Saudis came under intense scrutiny after the murder of Khashoggi, Trump repeatedly defended the kingdom and said he believed Mohammed, the crown prince, when he claimed to not have knowledge of the killing. U.S. intelligence has disputed that assessment.

In a November 2018 statement full of exclamation marks that aides said he dictated himself, Trump said that U.S. intelligence would continue to “assess” information but that the United States “may never know all the facts surrounding the murder.”

On whether the crown prince knew about or ordered the killing by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Trump said in the statement, “maybe he did or maybe he didn’t!” He suggested that U.S. interests in Saudi oil production, weapons purchases and support for administration policies in the Middle East were more important than holding an ally to account, and he stressed the importance of staying in the kingdom’s good graces because they were spending money in the United States.

“They have been a great ally,” he said of the Saudis, and “the United States intends to remain a steadfast partner.” He added: “I’m not going to destroy our economy by being foolish with Saudi Arabia.”

Trump came under withering criticism from Democrats, human rights advocates and even some Republicans for his position, but he did not waver.

“I saved his ass,” Trump said of Mohammed during an interview with Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward for his 2020 book, “Rage.” “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”

Trump also encouraged the Saudis to buy American weapons, backed the kingdom’s position on Iran and generally defended their most controversial moves, such as jailing people for political reasons.

Since taking office, President Biden has called the kingdom a “pariah” and has vowed to be tougher on the Saudis.

The former president has bragged to associates since leaving office about how profitable his golf courses were during the coronavirus pandemic, even as other aspects of his business struggled. He plays golf several days a week, advisers said.

Researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.