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Donald Trump attended the LIV Golf Tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, with his son Eric Trump. Eric and his older brother Don Jr. have been managing the Trump business empire while their father serves as president. \/ Annabelle Gordon\/REUTERS<\/p>\n
Multiple ethics experts told CNN they are troubled by Trump, an avid golf fan, staging high-profile golf tournaments at his own clubs while the public remains largely in the dark about how much money his family stands to make.<\/p>\n
Richard Painter, a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota Law School, told CNN that Trump\u2019s blurring of the presidency and his private interests has signaled that access and influence in Trump\u2019s Washington come through the family business empire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just going to be the tip of the iceberg,\u201d Painter said. \u201cAnd the message has been said all over the world that if you want to get along with the Trump administration, do business with the Trump family or with his golf courses or with his son.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has previously dismissed criticism of the president\u2019s conduct, saying his assets are managed by his children and that no conflicts of interest exist.<\/p>\n
The White House and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s golf clubs have long served as venues for LIV Golf events, a connection that has raised questions because the tour is backed primarily by Saudi Arabia\u2019s government, which has been accused of human rights violations.<\/p>\n
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The golf events join a list of issues that have raised conflict-of-interest concerns, such as the $400 million luxury jet Trump accepted from Qatar. \/ Mike Stobe \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
But the Trump family has continued to do business with the government while the president has worked to cultivate a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even defending him over the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, despite U.S. intelligence officials holding the leader responsible.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaudi Arabia is a murderous, authoritarian, anti-democratic region,\u201d Kathleen Clark, a law professor in government ethics at Washington University in St. Louis, told CNN.<\/p>\n
She added that Trump\u2019s \u201cwillingness\u201d to cut business deals with the Saudi government on ventures like the LIV Tour and thereby engage in \u201csportswashing\u201d\u2014a term for using high-profile sporting events to polish a country\u2019s global image\u2014is \u201ca really nice example about what his priorities are.\u201d<\/p>\n
LIV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The golf events join a list of conflict-of-interest concerns that critics have raised during Trump\u2019s second term, such as the $400 million luxury jet<\/a> Trump accepted from Qatar and the private dinner<\/a> he held for investors of his cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n Don Heider, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, urged Congress to step in and rein in the president.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are the ethics of all the members of the Senate and the House? \u2026 Why are they so afraid of political pressure they won\u2019t speak up and tell the truth consistently and hold this president accountable?\u201d Heider said to CNN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump\u2019s weekend on the golf course has sparked another round of questions about how the Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[12,427,35769,274852,99,59679,81846,220699],"class_list":["post-636306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-donald-trump","tag-golf","tag-golf-tournaments","tag-richard-painter","tag-sports","tag-the-trump-organization","tag-trump-family","tag-trump-national-doral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}