On the menu today: Put aside the proposed deal for a new, temporary Air Force One gift from the Qataris for a moment. President Trump wrapped up his big trip to the Middle East with an explicit pledge to militarily protect a pair of regimes who haven’t always been 100 percent stalwart American allies — royal families who have had some branches of the family support Islamist terror. It’s kind of amazing to see Donald Trump get accused of anti-Arab animus and Islamophobia, because once a Middle Eastern kingdom rolls out the red carpet and starts making deals with the Trump Organization, our president shows the most admiration and fascination for the Arab World from a white guy since T. E. Lawrence.
Neocons, Breathe Easy; Trump Pledges to Protect Arab Royal Families
President Trump, speaking in Doha, Qatar, Thursday:
We are going to protect this country. And it’s very special place, with a special royal family. The head of the royal family is two heads of the royal family, really, if you think. Great. It’s great people, and they’re going to be protected by the United States of America.
A few moments later, Trump continued:
Our relationship now is very strong with Saudi Arabia. Nobody’s coming, nobody’s going to be bothering that relationship. Nobody would be able to break that relationship, because of my relationship with the Crown Prince and the family. The relationship is really strong, and when you talk about Qatar, the relationship is equal. I mean, it’s — it’s just like nobody’s going to break that relationship. We’ve never — we have never had a relationship with Qatar as strong as it is. Now, you know, that better than anybody, and they’re very happy. And we’re going to protect you. We’re going to protect you.
It’s more than a little jarring to see a U.S. president who is supposedly a “restrainer” in foreign policy, who sees little or no value in NATO and its mutual defense agreements, and who complained about “the era of endless wars” turning around and publicly pledging that the U.S. military will protect the Qatari and Saudi royal families.
I mean, if we wanted a wealthy Republican president who was going to pledge to defend Middle Eastern royal families, the Bush family is still around!
Right now, the foreign policy of the United States is to threaten Denmark, gather intelligence about Greenland, repeatedly talk about a desire to annex Canada and make it the 51st state, and to prepare options to expand a U.S. military presence in Panama, including seizing the canal by force. (Note that during his speech in Riyadh, Trump denounced “neocons,” “nation-builders,” and “interventionists.”)
Meanwhile, for much of the past few months, we’ve done everything possible to ingratiate ourselves with Vladimir Putin. (According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump recently “expressed surprise at some of Putin’s military moves, including bombing areas with children.” If only there had been some clue in the past that Putin was capable of such brutality!)
Somehow, we’ve become the world’s toughest ally and most easygoing enemy.
Earlier in the week, this newsletter pointed out how the Qatari regime has played both sides during the War on Terror. Over at the Middle East Forum, Benjamin Baird completed a meticulous investigation that lays out the jaw-dropping depth and breadth of Qatar’s efforts to shape U.S. foreign policy and perceptions of that country. A few highlights:
- “Qatar, a tiny Gulf emirate with just 300,000 citizens, has deployed nearly $40 billion across our nation’s institutions since 2012. This is not mere investment. It is calculated influence.”
- “Since 2016, Qatar has spent $71,576,688 on lobbying, public relations, and legal firms intended to whitewash its public image and produce favorable policies towards it. These contracts included some of the most powerful movers and shakers in the Washington, D.C., lobbying space, from former Congress members to cabinet-level officials.”
- “Qatar has granted $6.25 billion dollars to U.S. higher education institutions, making it the single largest foreign donor to American higher education, through which it yields significant (and dangerous) influence. As public scrutiny intensified in the aftermath of October 7 over Qatar’s role in promoting anti-American and antisemitic attitudes on college campuses, the emirate’s grants to universities only increased, with a record $980 million in contributions to U.S. schools between January 2023 and October 2024.”
- “Doha found itself on the defense during much of Biden’s term. Following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, which Qatar was accused of facilitating through financing Hamas and hosting its leadership, Doha positioned itself as the primary mediator between Israel and Hamas — a role that earned it the gratitude of some Western policymakers who view its mediation as essential to a peaceful solution in Gaza. However, critics warned that Qatar is not a neutral arbiter, but a representative of Hamas’s interests.”
- “Starting in 2018, Qatar retained the services of Ballard Partners, a firm headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, and led by Brian Ballard, who Newsweek referred to as “the most powerful lobbyist in Trump’s Washington.” Ballard Partners earned $115,000 a month in a contract with Qatar that required “providing advice, counsel, and other assistance with respect to efforts to combat human trafficking.” At the time, Qatar was accused of gross human rights abuses regarding its migrant workers.”
(You may recall who was working on Qatar issues for Ballard Partners during that time: former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is now the current U.S. attorney general. You’ll probably recall that Bondi, who used to work for the Qataris, saw no conflict of interest in her boss accepting a plane from Qataris to temporarily use as Air Force One before it is transferred to the Trump presidential library.)
To sum up, the Qatari government and its allies have tons of money; lots of lobbyists, friends in high places all over Washington, academia, and the think-tank and business worlds; and lots of former lawmakers in their pocket and are eager to influence those currently shaping U.S. policy. In other words, everything that the paranoid folks think about Israel and AIPAC is actually pretty close to the mark about the Qataris!
Oh, and one last thing: Qatari Diar is the real estate company that is part of the Qatar Investment Authority, which is the country’s sovereign wealth fund. In other words, while the QIA is a private investment group, they are essentially an extension of the royal family and government. Qatari Diar announced an elaborate new project at the end of April:
Qatari Diar has signed an agreement with Dar Global to develop Trump International Golf Club Simaisma includes a luxury 18-hole golf course, golf club and an exclusive collection of Trump-branded luxury villas, as part of the landmark Simaisma coastal project located 40 kilometers north of Doha.
Occupying approximately 790,000 square meters within the broader 8 million square meters of Simaisma development, this collaboration will deliver a world-class 18-hole Trump International Golf Course, a Trump Golf Clubhouse, and approximately high-end branded villas overlooking the golf and the beach with direct access to beach and neighbouring anticipated luxury lifestyle destinations. . . .
Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization, commented: “We are incredibly proud to expand the Trump brand into Qatar through this exceptional collaboration with Qatari Diar and Dar Global. Trump International Golf Club Simaisma and our luxury villa community will reflect our highest standards of quality, prestige, and timeless elegance.”
America has a lot of wealthy businessmen who might be interested in building a golf course and luxury resort. But there’s only one wealthy businessman who, as commander in chief, can publicly declare that the U.S. military will protect the Qatari royal family.
But hey, if there’s anything we’ve learned over the last four years, it’s that Republicans are really laid back about a president’s son getting involved in lucrative business deals with foreign businessmen. The GOP is almost nonchalant about it; they always give the benefit of the doubt to members of the president’s family when foreign businessmen come along with giant piles of cash.
ADDENDUM: You’re going to want to check out our July issue for a wide variety of excellent articles; I profiled Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and his not-so-subtle presidential ambitions:
Without his fortune, JB Pritzker would be just another face in the Democratic crowd, indistinguishable from the progressive Democratic governors of Rhode Island (Dan McKee), Oregon (Tina Kotek), and Delaware (Matt Meyer). But he will be taken very seriously as a Democratic presidential candidate if he chooses to run, because he’s a walking ATM that gives progressives what they want.
I don’t want to brag, but I’ve done some extraordinary things in my life, and high among them is writing a more-than-2,000-word profile of Pritzker and never making a fat joke.