While violation of this law could result in imprisonment for “not more than six months”, a fine, or both, these punishments are rarely applied.
This is not the first time the seal has been reported on display at Trump properties. The logo appeared on a marker at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in an Instagram post earlier this year, according to Forbes. WNYC and ProPublica reported in 2018 that the Trump Organization ordered golf tee markers with the emblem on them.
Last year, a DC-based watchdog group accused his Bedminster golf club of profiting from the use of images of the presidential seal.
“The illegal use of the presidential seal for commercial purposes is not a trivial matter, especially when it comes to a former president actively challenging the legitimacy of the current president,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics said in Washington when it filed the 2021 complaint.
As Trump teed off Thursday at the pro-am in the last LIV Golf Invitational Series tournamentthe event was closed to the public but open to the media.
This week marks the third event in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Series, with which Trump joined forces in Bedminster in the face of criticism, and the second in the United States.
The former president was asked if he regretted the golf club hosting an LIV Golf event instead of a tournament sanctioned by the US Golf Association or the PGA Tour.
“No, I don’t regret it. That’s your problem,” she said. “This course beats all other courses.”
Trump has faced criticism from survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and their families for hosting the Saudi-backed golf tournament at his New Jersey resort, 50 miles from Ground Zero.
in a ad released this weekRelatives of those who lost their lives in the attacks hold photos of their deceased loved ones as they share the pain they still endure more than 20 years later.
“How much money to turn your back on your own country?” a woman asks.
The golf course is funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, whose chairman is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He has been held responsible by US intelligence for the murder of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
On Thursday, Trump dismissed criticism that he is being too friendly with Saudi Arabia.
“Unfortunately, no one has gotten to the bottom of 9/11,” Trump told ESPN.
Families of 9/11 victims, many of whom protested Trump’s golf event this week, suspect Saudi leaders provided financial and logistical support to the terror plot, allegations the country’s government has long denied. .
The FBI last year released a list of documents from his investigation into whether agents of the Saudi Arabian government provided support for the plot. While the documents have yielded no tangible evidence of official Saudi government involvement in the attacks, most of the 9/11 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia.
The documents showed that as recently as 2016, FBI agents were still investigating possible links between two of the hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, and people who might have helped them after they arrived in the United States in 2000.