The Trump administration announced on Friday that it would allow Qatar to operate a military facility in Idaho. This follows the Qatari government giving President Donald Trump a multimillion-dollar passenger jet and giving his company a deal to develop a golf course there.
Scandal-plagued Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made the announcement during a press event with Qatar’s defense minister, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
“Today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatar Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho,” he said, after crediting Qatar with helping to negotiate a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The U.S. and Qatar have been in talks to have some sort of military training capacity in Idaho for years, but this announcement comes after the foreign government has thrown millions of dollars at Trump.
In May, Qatar gifted Trump a luxury jet, which the military is converting to become Air Force One. Trump was widely criticized for taking in a foreign gift worth millions. The plane is expected to transfer to his future presidential library after he leaves office.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats attempted to block defense funding for the jet conversion process, but the measure was defeated by Republicans.
Following the airplane gift, Trump signed an executive order in September that promised to provide support—including militarily—to Qatar in the event of an armed attack against the Middle Eastern nation.
The Trump Organization, Trump’s private company, announced in April that it had made a deal with Qatar’s government to build a luxury golf resort there. Noah Bookbinder, who leads the nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, slammed the arrangement, telling Associated Press at the time, “You want a president making decisions that are in the best interest of the United States, not his bottom line.”
Trump’s coziness with Qatar is even more suspicious since he has previously criticized that nation for having ties to terrorist organizations.
“The nation of Qatar has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump said in June 2017.
One of his most high-profile supporters, racist conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, slammed the Qatar facility announcement on Friday.
“Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans. I don’t think I’ll be voting in 2026,” she wrote. “I cannot in good conscience make any excuses for the harboring of jihadis. This is where I draw the line.”
Trump has normalized open bribery in the presidency, raking in millions in exchange for political favors and agreements. Now, American security is seemingly for sale—no matter what the consequences are for the public.
