What happened this weekend to make Laura Loomer, the MAGA hyper-loyalist with an inside line to Donald Trump himself, criticize the president, a man she “would take a bullet for?” ABC News reported that the Trump administration was poised to accept a “super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet” from Qatar, described as “what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government.”
“We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits,” Loomer said.
Quite.
Despite the online mechanisms whirring into action to decry any criticism of Trump as “fake news,” the president even repeatedly confirmed the possibility, including one stereotypical Truth Social post:
“So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily,” Trump announced, “in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA.”
The fact that this is even a possible scenario that is being considered, let alone celebrated, by the president is both telling and terrifying.
This is the same Trump who described Qatar as “a funder of terrorism at a very high level” as recently as 2017. What changed?
After all, Qatar is not only a funder of terrorism, including Hamas, but it has also harbored terrorists in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel. For years, it has been an active participant in a global conspiracy to undermine the U.S. and its institutions, using its almost infinite wealth to sow hatred and chaos across the American higher education system.
Even on its face, accepting this “gift” from a pro-terrorism Islamist dictatorship would represent a stunning national security risk of clownish proportions. But it’s also an indication of something far more insidious: that Qatar owns Americans in the White House.
BEWARE OF THIRD-RATE ISLAMIST TERRORIST-LOVING PETROSTATES OFFERING GIFTS, MR. PRESIDENT
Consider, for a moment, the vast business links between the Trump administration and Qatar. Eric Trump just flew to Doha, Qatar, to sign a luxury golf resort deal worth $5.5 billion, set to financially benefit the president himself, as well as the Trump organization (as if there is any measurable difference). Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, also has links with Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund worth upwards of $600 million. Even Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general, has links to Qatar, once earning $115,000 a month to lobby Congress on behalf of the Qataris.
Trump may laud the absurd offer of a Qatari jumbo jet as a “FREE OF CHARGE” gift with no strings attached, and he might even convince the most diehard among his supporters. But everyone else, including the president, understands that nothing in this life is free, raising the obvious question: Why is Qatar doing this?
Ian is a syndicated columnist. Follow him on X (@ighaworth) or Substack.