Donald Trump’s weekend on the golf course has sparked another round of questions about how the Trump family is profiting from the presidency.
The 79-year-old billionaire president on Saturday traveled to Sterling, Virginia, where the Trump National Golf Club is hosting an LIV Golf event, just a week after he flew down to Florida to attend the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship, which was hosted at Trump National Doral in Miami.
The outings have reignited conflict-of-interest concerns among ethics lawyers, who warn that Trump’s business empire may be benefiting from his position as president. They also sound the alarm over the Trump family’s murky business ties, according to a CNN report.
Multiple 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.
Richard Painter, a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota Law School, told CNN that Trump’s blurring of the presidency and his private interests has signaled that access and influence in Trump’s Washington come through the family business empire.
“This is just going to be the tip of the iceberg,” Painter said. “And 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.”
The Trump administration has previously dismissed criticism of the president’s conduct, saying his assets are managed by his children and that no conflicts of interest exist.
The White House and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s 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’s government, which has been accused of human rights violations.
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.
“Saudi Arabia is a murderous, authoritarian, anti-democratic region,” Kathleen Clark, a law professor in government ethics at Washington University in St. Louis, told CNN.
She added that Trump’s “willingness” to cut business deals with the Saudi government on ventures like the LIV Tour and thereby engage in “sportswashing”—a term for using high-profile sporting events to polish a country’s global image—is “a really nice example about what his priorities are.”
LIV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The golf events join a list of conflict-of-interest concerns that critics have raised during Trump’s second term, such as the $400 million luxury jet Trump accepted from Qatar and the private dinner he held for investors of his cryptocurrency.
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.
“Where are the ethics of all the members of the Senate and the House? … Why are they so afraid of political pressure they won’t speak up and tell the truth consistently and hold this president accountable?” Heider said to CNN.
