President Donald Trump presents the winner's trophy to U.S. Team Captain Steve Stricker after the final round of the Presidents Cup tournament at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., | Julio Cortez/AP Photo Trump dedicates golf win to hurricane victims

President Donald Trump dedicated the nation's victory in Presidents Cup golf Sunday afternoon to victims of recent hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida.

"On behalf of all the people of Texas, and all of the people of — if you look today you will see what’s happening and how horrible it is, but we have it under really great control, Puerto Rico and the people of Florida that have really suffered over this last short period of time with the hurricanes, I want to just remember them," Trump said during the trophy presentation.


The Presidents Cup is one of the marquee events on the PGA Tour. The tournament pits teams of U.S. golfers against international competitors and was held this year at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, near Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty — and also not far from where Trump claimed to have seen footage of thousands of Muslims cheering on Sept. 11, 2001.

In his remarks Sunday, Trump also touted the play of the American team, which routed the international squad and clinched victory in just the third match of the day. “To team USA, that was unbelievable playing,” he said of the squad captained by Steve Stricker.

After returning to Washington, Trump emphasized to reporters that the federal government's response to Puerto Ricans in need is going "really well."

"We're doing really well on Puerto Rico," Trump told reporters, according to a pool report. "Tremendous progress being made. We're getting the roads open, we're getting a lot of things done — really at a record clip."

Trump, who has spent the weekend stewing on Twitter over coverage of Puerto Rico, stressed that his administration has the situation "under really great control," as the U.S. territory continues to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Trump has chafed at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz and others who have said that the administration could be doing more to speed up recover efforts.

After previously saying that Puerto Ricans should not trust "fake news" coverage of the recovery, Trump added Sunday that people who fail to recognize the administration's progress are "politically motivated ingrates."

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Trump’s attendance at the Presidents Cup is the first for a sitting president since Bill Clinton at the 2000 tournament near Washington, D.C.

The U.S president serves as honorary chair of the Presidents Cup and is always invited to the tournament, which pits American male professional golfers against a team of top international players, except Europeans.

Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Clinton attended the opening of the tournament Thursday in Jersey City. That’s a rare moment for any sporting event: the last time more than one former president attended a Presidents Cup was in 2005, with Clinton and George H.W. Bush, according to Golfweek.

Trump has long had a deep connection with professional golf. He’s been spotted on the course over the last year with some of the sport’s most famous players, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. In February, Trump invited South African professional Ernie Els to join in a round with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The president’s name is also attached to 12 courses in the U.S. and five more abroad. Two of those courses are among the most iconic in the world: the “Blue Monster” Doral links in Miami, and Turnberry in Scotland, which has hosted four British Open tournaments.

Before he’d even launched his presidential campaign, Trump had secured the rights to host two major professional tournaments that ended up coinciding with his first term in the White House. In July, Trump became the first sitting president to ever attend a U.S. Women’s Open, which was held at his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. And Eric Trump attended in May at Trump’s private club in Northern Virginia when the private club hosted the Senior PGA Championship.

Trump’s Bedminster golf course will also be the site for the PGA Championship in 2022.

While Trump this month has sparked a political firestorm with his tweets and comments critical of NFL players who have been protesting during the national anthem, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan insisted to reporters that Trump’s appearance at the tournament wouldn’t be about politics.

“The name of this event is named after the highest office in the land, and you’ve heard me say really over the course of a year how we’ve always respected the office of the presidency, so when we extended that invitation…and when he accepted, we were really excited to know that he’d accepted that role and was contemplating coming out here, and we’re excited to have him out here, we really are,” Monahan said, according to Golfweek.