Gloating Trump celebrates LIV golf's 'big beautiful' deal with the PGA trends now

Former President Donald Trump hailed the 'glamorous' deal between Saudi-backed LIV golf and the PGA, having profited off matches on his home courses and correctly predicted the merger.

Trump issued the statement Tuesday after the PGA Tour announced the stunning merger, which came amid a divide among players who joined the lucrative LIV tour and Tiger Woods and compatriots who stood by the PGA.

Trump, who as president made his first international trip to Saudi Arabia, hosted the LIV tournament at his Doral, Florida, Bedminster, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. area golf courses, although he didn't disclose the terms of the deal.

Trump welcomed the news on his Truth Social platform.

'GREAT NEWS FROM LIV GOLF. A BIG BEAUTIFUL , AND GLAMOROUS DEAL FOR THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF. CONGRATS TO ALL!!!' 

Last July, amid controversy over the tour amid opposition by families of those lost in the Sept. 11th attacks, Trump defended the tour and attacked the PGA after it canceled plans to hold a championship at his Bedminster course days after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

'All of those golfers that remain “loyal” to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big “thank you” from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year,' Trump posted. 'If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were. Good luck to all, and congratulations to really talented Cam Smith on his incredible WIN!' he concluded, acknowledging the Australian star.

Trump while in office also questioned the intelligence about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, although U.S. intelligence report later found Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman 'approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill' the U.S.-based Saudi journalist and dissident.

At the White House Tuesday, security spokesman Adm. John Kirby declined to provide details when asked about the merger, saying he would let the Saudi government speak to it. 

Trump's victory lap came after the PGA did a complete about-face by merging with rival LIV Golf less than one year after PGA commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters that such an arrangement was 'off the table.' 

In a shocking move that was unknown to PGA stars and LIV commissioner Greg Norman until Tuesday morning, the PGA and European Tours have signed an agreement with the Saudi-backed circuit to combine their businesses into a new, yet-to-be-named company. The merger ends the ongoing litigation between the two sides. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. 

The move represents a major victory for LIV Golf, which has been shunned by many golf icons, including Tour legends Jack Nicklaus, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, who reportedly turned down a $1billion deal to defect from the PGA Tour. 

But LIV Golf has succeeded in buying some of the world's top players, spending hundreds of millions on the likes of Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.  The problem now for PGA Tour is reintegrating the defectors who took Saudi money with the players who remained loyal by refusing lucrative LIV contracts. 

LIV Golf has been slammed for its ties to Saudi Arabia's controversial Public Investment Fund (PIF), with critics accusing the kingdom of 'sportswashing' its human rights record. LIV defectors, meanwhile, have been pilloried over allegations of greed. 

Trump has been highly critical of the PGA in recent years after that tour relocated its 2022 championship away from his course in New Jersey amid uproar over the infamous January 6 'Stop the Steal' rally. 

The merger comes one year after LIV Golf's first event, and ends its legal battle with the PGA.

While the PGA was accused of violating antitrust laws by banning LIV players from its Tour, golf's preeminent circuit countersued its Saudi-backed rivals, accusing the outfit of interfering with its deals.

Players who defected to LIV Golf were banned at PGA events, but have continued playing at the majors. For instance, LIV Golf's Koepka won last month's PGA Championship. 

The PGA-LIV merger was a complete surprise to the golf world. 

It was only a year ago at the Canadian Open that Monahan attacked LIV Golf by asking his players, rhetorically: 'Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?'

Somehow, Monahan is now partnering with Saudi Arabia.  

Even PGA players, who had loyally stood by the Tour rather than taking the Saudi's millions, were caught off guard by the news.

'Shocked and confused,' one unidentified golfer told Barstool's Dan Rapaport.

'Disgusted,' another said. 'They didn't tell us anything.' 

'Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we're merging with a tour that we said we'd never do that with,' read a tweet from golfer Mackenzie Hughes. 

And when asked if Norman knew about the deal, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan told CNBC: 'I made the call just before this [interview].'

Critics of the PGA-LIV merger wasted little time in condemning the deal, which is allegedly aimed at helping rehabilitate Saudi Arabia's tarnished reputation throughout the world. 

'While this may have taken some golf fans and commentators by surprise, it's really just more evidence of the onward march of Saudi sportswashing,' said Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK's Head of Priority Campaigns and Individuals at Risk.

'It's been clear for some time that Saudi Arabia was prepared to use vast amounts of money to muscle its way into top-tier golf - just part of a wider effort to become a major sporting power and to try to distract attention from the country's atrocious human rights record.

'Away from the glamour of the golf

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