Exclusive: Trump’s Visit To Qatar, Amid Hubbub Over ‘Free’ Plane, Caps Tiny State’s $40 Billion Influence Campaign To Win America’s Favor

When President Trump visits the state of Qatar on Wednesday, it will mark the culmination of a decades-long influence campaign in America by the tiny petrostate. And while the press has been agog over Qatar’s interest in gifting the Americans a $400 million jet, that money is a fraction of what Qatar has spent over the years to curry favor with the United States.Indeed, Qatar has spent the past two decades launching a “silent invasion” of America, doling out nearly $40 billion in donations and investments in American businesses, lobbying firms, nonprofits, and universities, while simultaneously providing shelter and support to terrorist organizations like Hamas, according to a new report by the Middle East Forum shared exclusively with the Sun.“As our study demonstrates, Qatar converts its financial commitments into political capital, strategically deploying its wealth to reshape regional and global agendas,” a Middle East Forum action director, Benjamin Baird, the report’s author, tells the Sun. Mr. Trump’s stated interest in accepting as a gift from Qatar a Boeing 747 — worth about $400 million, to serve as Air Force One during his presidency, and then, according to ABC News, to be given to his library — has only added to the debate over Qatar’s checkbook diplomacy. A Boeing aircraft that President Trump toured amid concerns about delays of the new Air Force One takes off from Palm Beach International Airport on February 16, 2025. AP/Ben Curtis, fileOn Monday, Mr. Trump defended Qatar’s gift, suggesting the offer of a free plane was too good for him to turn down.“You should be embarrassed asking that question,” he said to an ABC News reporter who referred to the plane as “a personal gift” to the president. “They’re giving us a free jet. I could say no … I want to pay you $1 billion. … Or I could say thank you.” “Qatar’s luxury Boeing 747 may come free of charge, but when it comes to Doha, every gift, every investment, and every contract comes with a steep price,” Mr. Baird said.The MEF report provides a highly detailed look at Qatar’s enormous influence campaign, in which the tiny kingdom has deployed its enormous natural gas and oil wealth to win America’s approbation. Of the $40 billion it devoted to American interests over the last 20 years, more than $6 billion was sent to universities, $71.5 million was spent on lobbying, and $33.4 billion went to businesses and real estate.The Northwestern University campus in Qatar. Via Wikimedia Commons CC4.0“Flush with petrodollar wealth, Qatari royals are ready to stake their claim in an irresistible new frontier of American investment opportunities,” Mr. Baird writes. “Yet, the cost to everyday Americans is far too steep: heightened terrorist threats, the spread of Islamism, compromised academic integrity, and a corrosive pay-to-play political system.”Qatar’s deep ties to Iran, its well-documented financial support of anti-Israel terror groups like ISIS, Hamas, and the Houthis, and its use of “soft power” tools like its highly influential, virulently anti-Israel Al Jazeera media network, are reasons alone to consider Qatar a “country for concern,” Mr. Baird writes. Qatar utilizes its huge cash resources as a “geopolitical force multiplier” to purchase influence and bolster its global standing, he adds.The Gulf state, which has long hosted the forward operating base of the U.S. Central Command, has spent the past year capitalizing on its built-in access to Mr. Trump’s circle, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and adviser Elon Musk, and “rebalancing” its influence operations, as MEF researchers put it.“We’re seeing the money go from lobbying expenses directly to these huge investments, either in private equity or hedge funds or real estate, to individuals who are very close to the Trump administration,” Mr. Baird said.President Trump boards Air Force One on May 12, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. He is traveling to Saudi Arabia, the first stop on his four-day Middle East visit and the first international trip of his second term. Win McNamee/Getty Images“It’s something [President Trump] is going to need to be very aware of, and members of the administration are going to have to be aware of to safeguard themselves from the malign influences that Qatar brings,” Mr. Baird said.Qatar is far from the only wealthy nation seeking to buy influence in America. Its arch-rival, the United Arab Emirates, which is even richer than Qatar, also invests billions of dollars in American influence plays, and Mr. Trump will be passing through the UAE this week. But the UAE does not have Qatar’s close ties to Iran, and does not engage with terror groups in the way Qatar does.Using data collected from open, or publicly available, sources, Foreign Agent Registration Act disclosures, ethics filings, and generative AI and deep research tools, the MEF report, titled “America For Sale: Qatar’s $40 Billion Spending Spree Buys Influence and Control of Elite Institutions,” describes the aggressive strategies Qatar has used to buy up influence in the top echelons of power and tap American engineering and technology for its home operations. “Qatar’s investments in U.S. institutions, including critical infrastructure and sensitive technologies, stand contrary to American interests and represent an aggressive soft power influence strategy meant to exploit policymakers and alter public opinion,” Mr. Baird writes.President Trump and the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, during an Oval Office meeting at the White House, July 9, 2019. Alex Wong/Getty ImagesSince 2012, Qatar, through its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has spent $33.4 billion on commercial undertakings in the U.S., such as investments in real estate, private equity firms, and sports.In New York City alone, Qatar spent $6.23 billion in building a portfolio of trophy properties that includes the Plaza Hotel and the St. Regis New York, taking an ownership stake in the Empire State Building, and pouring billions of dollars into Brookfield Properties’s Manhattan West Development. The QIA invested billions of dollars into hedge funds and private equity firms as “a sign of Qatar’s enduring commitment to the American marketplace,” Mr. Baird writes. It also invested $575 million in Pershing Square Capital, which is run by a supporter of Mr. Trump, Bill Ackman, and $500 million in Liberty Strategic Capital, run by a former Trump Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. The QIA, along with Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Lunate, invested $1.5 billion in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. Mr. Kushner defended the investment, saying on a podcast that it had been closed before the 2024 presidential election and was made “irrespective” of his father-in-law’s return to the White House.Qatar’s investments in sports entertainment companies, like the $200 million it spent in 2023 to secure a 5 percent stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns NHL and NBA teams in Washington, D.C., is part of the “sportswashing” strategy the country regularly uses to “distract from its ultra-conservative and authoritarian image,” Mr. Baird argues. The Texas A&M University campus at Qatar has announced it will close. Via Wikimedia CommonsQatar, with aspirations to be a global tech hub with “automated government services and a digital ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation,” is actively investing in AI and cutting-edge technologies. Recent investments include an AI-powered unstructured data management firm, Instabase, and Mr. Musk’s xAI, both of which have helped position Qatar as a player in the global AI race. It’s these investments into high-risk sectors that will continue to pose substantial security concerns, barring action from U.S. policymakers, Mr. Baird argues.“Despite not being designated a ‘country of concern,’ Qatar’s extensive business ties with China and Iran raise significant data privacy and national security concerns due to its substantial investments in U.S. AI and tech companies,” Mr. Baird writes.Qatar has also gained a significant stake in America’s domestic energy resources at a time when the United States is working to achieve energy independence from the Middle East.Mr. Baird points to the Golden Pass Liquefied Natural Gas export plant, an $8 billion joint venture between ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy, the country’s state-owned petroleum company, as an example of the potential danger of sharing trade secrets with Qatar. President George W. Bush discussing Iraqi reconstruction with Ambassador Paul Bremer and General Tommy Franks, June 5, 2003, in Doha, Qatar. Eric Draper/White House/Getty Images“The Golden Pass plant offers Qatar intimate knowledge of America’s production and supply chain processes — an unacceptable risk since such trade secrets could be used by the Qataris to unseat the U.S. as the dominant LNG supplier,” Mr. Baird writes. Other infrastructure investments, like the $740 million purchase of common stock in the energy company Avangrid, and a $4 billion investment in the Golden Triangle Polymers petrochemical plant, are signs that Qatar has a growing role in the management of America’s domestic energy resources. “This leaves American customers and investors vulnerable to Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions, resulting in economic dependence and regulatory and oversight challenges,” Mr. Baird says. President Obama encourages the Kuwaiti emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, left, to make a statement alongside Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, following the Gulf Cooperation Council-U.S. summit on May 14, 2015, at Camp David, Maryland. Kevin Dietsch – Pool/Getty ImagesSince 2015, Qatar has poured nearly $72 million into influential K Street lobbying and PR firms with direct access to Washington power players.Qatar, which has long used its money and savvy to punch above its weight in global diplomacy, is despised by many of its Persian Gulf neighbors due to its dalliances with Iran, which is feared by most Gulf states, and its control of Al Jazeera, which is a thorn in the side of rival autocratic, Arab regimes.Qatar’s lobbying intensified around the same time, in 2017, that the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia imposed an extraordinary air, land, and sea blockade against Qatar for its ties to Iran and its support of international terrorist groups. The embargo lasted until early 2021. Qatar survived it in part by tapping Stonington Strategies, a firm co-run by a former Trump campaign staffer, Nick Muzin, to launch a “‘charm offensive’ that offered key Trump allies luxury trips to Doha and consulting deals,” Mr. Baird writes. Among those targeted was the current American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. AP/Jacquelyn Martin, poolQatar also hired the law firm run by a former attorney general, John Ashcroft, “to evaluate, verify and, as necessary, strengthen the client’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing” laws. Combined, both moves helped the country survive the embargo, Mr. Baird argues. The embargo, which ended without Qatar acceding to demands from the Saudis — such as cutting ties with Iran and shutting down Al Jazeera — was seen as a win for the Qataris. At about the same time as Qatar was fending off the embargo, it was dealing with news reports that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of migrant workers died in accidents at building projects for the 2022 World Cup. Like its wealthy Gulf neighbors, Qatar, with a tiny, uber-wealthy citizenry, relies heavily on guest workers from places like India and Bangladesh to perform labor. To head off the negative publicity about the World Cup (the Department of Justice in 2020 accused Qatar of paying FIFA bribes to get the World Cup), Qatar hired Ballard Partners, led by a prominent lobbyist, Brian Ballard, and Moran Global Strategies, headed by a former congressman, Jim Moran, a Democrat of Virginia, to sway Qatar’s biggest critics in Congress.Bringing American lawmakers and businesspeople to Doha, with its Corniche and gleaming towers — and Lawrence of Arabia-style dunes just outside the capital — has been an effective public relations strategy. According to the MEF report, “An agent from Moran Global Strategies spent six days meeting with Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) while the pair were in Qatar to discuss the country’s ‘domestic and foreign policy positions.’ In March 2025, reporters pointed to Marshall’s ‘bizarre’ pro-Qatar speech during a congressional hearing, where the senator admonished a witness for questioning Qatar’s investments in U.S. higher education. Marshall was once among Qatar’s fiercest critics, speaking at a 2019 Middle East Forum conference that characterized the Gulf state as a ‘global menace,’” Mr. Baird writes. Between 2016 and 2023 the country spent an average of $8.4 million per year on lobbying expenses inside the United States. That number dipped considerably in 2024, to about $3.3 million, a drop Mr. Baird attributes to the scrutiny of Qatar’s ties to Hamas — whose political leaders have until very recently lived in Qatar, while their current location is unclear — in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel.Secretary Blinken and Qatar’s prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, at Doha, Qatar, February 6, 2024. AP/Mark Schiefelbein, pool“Perhaps Qatar was hedging its bets during a crucial election year. Alternatively, the Gulf state may have adjusted its strategy, finding it more productive to invest in businesses and real estate connected to political heavyweights” such as Mr. Kushner, Mr. Baird writes. Qatar spent more than $48 million investing in think tanks, nonprofits, and K-12 schools as part of its ambitions “to encourage policies and narratives that support its Islamist agenda, whitewash its corruption, and distract from its sponsorship of terrorists and extremists,” Mr. Baird writes. Since 2011, it has given nearly $30 million to the liberal Brookings Institution — a feeder to the Obama administration — more than $2.3 million to the Stimson Center, and six-figure donations to the RAND Corporation and the Middle East Institute. Mr. Baird argues: “When countries like Qatar, which has used bribery and espionage to manipulate policymakers, fund American think tanks, it distorts the credibility of the entire industry. Think tanks are valued for their scholarly objectivity and independent research. The infusion of Qatari cash into this arena casts a veil of uncertainty around nongovernmental institutions that are in the business of influencing policy.”President Herzog, right, shakes hands with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Via COP28 DubaiThrough its nonprofit Qatar Foundation International — the D.C.-based international arm of the well-funded Qatar Foundation, which is overseen by Qatar’s queen (one of three wives of Qatar’s former emir) — the country has sent millions of dollars to American schools and programs, and “tainted” curricula with anti-Israel bias while advancing a pro-Qatar agenda.But it is Qatar’s standing as the single most active foreign donor to American colleges and universities, sending about $6.3 billion to American colleges and universities, that has made it effective in fomenting antisemitic and anti-American sentiments in top universities.Qatar uses the Qatar Foundation, which describes itself as a nonprofit, to dole out foreign funding to universities. Even though it’s run by Qatar’s royal family, the foundation is structured as a private company. “The foundation’s structure allows universities to deny receiving money from the state of Qatar, instead attributing the donations to private donors, a sleight of hand that allows schools to manipulate disclosure obligations under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires U.S. universities to report foreign government gifts or contracts,” Mr. Baird writes. When Qatar was facing increased scrutiny over its donations to higher education in the aftermath of October 7, the country ramped up its financial involvement with American universities to record levels, spending more than $980 million between January 2023 and October 2024. The official countdown clock showing remaining time until the kick-off of the 2022 World Cup, at Doha, Qatar. AP/Darko Bandic, fileMr. Baird says there have been encouraging signs of American universities distancing themselves from Qatar, like Brown University closing its 35-year partnership with Qatar and the “Choices” high school education program, and Texas A&M’s decision to close its Qatar campus by 2028. Several upper-tier American universities, such as Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and Northwestern, still have campuses in Qatar’s Education City, where they give full degrees, without asterisks, to rich Qataris. The Doha campuses are a significant source of revenue for the universities.Doha is also luring brand name American media companies — such as CNN and News Corp — to its Media City, a new effort to challenge Abu Dhabi’s role as the epicenter of Western media’s Middle East operations.“To protect American interests, the U.S. must respond to Qatar’s pernicious attempts to manipulate public opinion, influence politicians and business leaders, and undermine U.S. alliances through its sophisticated investment strategy,” Mr. Baird argues. World Cup branding is displayed near the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center. AP/Darko Bandic, fileDoing so requires “a complete policy overhaul and governance reset.” Mr. Baird suggests the Trump White House first rescind Qatar’s status as a Major Non-NATO ally, which he says would make it easier “to impose financial oversight protections and other reforms that effectively treat Doha as a foreign adversary.” Qatar should also be listed as a “country of concern” under Executive Order 14117, “Preventing Access to Americans’ Bulk Sensitive Personal Data and United States Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern,” to protect American interests and restrict high-risk data transactions with Qatar, Mr. Baird writes. Among Mr. Baird’s other recommendations are restoring the full reporting requirements of the Higher Education Act and adding the Qatar Foundation to the list of foreign institutions engaging in “problematic activity.”Mr. Baird recommends that Congress introduce and pass legislation that would hit former members of Congress and the executive branch with lengthy bans for lobbying on behalf of foreign entities.“Foreign direct investment in the United States is good, and we want to encourage it at all times,” Mr. Baird said, adding that the federal government needs to be “more discriminating” in allowing Qatar to be invested in projects like Golden Pass.“They’re our chief competitor on the world stage, and here we are allowing them in our own backyard where they can adopt our own trade secrets,” Mr. Baird tells the Sun. “It really sets us back on the competition stage, I think.”

Exclusive: Trump’s Visit To Qatar, Amid Hubbub Over ‘Free’ Plane, Caps Tiny State’s $40 Billion Influence Campaign To Win America’s Favor

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