Opinion: The Plane is a Problem

Air Force One is getting an upgrade, apparently. Courtesy of Qatar.

The White House would have you think that this is a good thing: that the flying gilded palace – far from being a bribe from a foreign government – is, instead, a $400 million generous, no-strings-attached gift from a trustworthy ally.

Apparently the White House also has a bridge to sell you… and maybe it’s a bridge to the new luxury Trump property being built in Qatar…

For those who didn’t already know: Qatar is bad news.

Astronomically wealthy and ultra-stealthy bad news.

Qatar has been buying influence in the United States for years, and its operations have already produced poisoned fruit.

To date, Qatar has invested about $45 Billion (with a ‘B’) in the USA, (Some estimates are higher. Hard to track “shadow money.”) much of that in education. It’s given about $5 Billion (again with that ‘B.’ And, again, estimates go higher.) to American universities, typically with donations channeled through entities like the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, so that said universities do not have to report receiving aid directly from the Qatari government. Numerous watchdog groups have repeatedly called out universities including Yale, Columbia, Northwestern, and many others for failure to report that funding and materials for their programs are coming from Qatar.  

I’ll let you hazard a guess as to what kinds of university programming Qatar is funding in the United States by telling you about other areas of Qatari investiture.

Let’s start with Hamas.

According to The Foundation for The Defense of Democracies, Qatar is one of the largest financial contributors to Hamas, and gives the U.S.-designated terror group about $100 Million every year. To date, Qatar has given Hamas about $1.8 Billion (There’s that ‘B’ again).

In addition to lots and lots and lots of money, Qatar also gives Hamas a headquarters in the Qatari capitol, Doha, and a platform on its state-funded, -controlled, and -run news media: Al Jazeera News.  

On Oct. 7, 2023, amid the carnage of the Hamas attacks in Israel, Al Jazeera featured Hamas’ Doha-based Political Chief, Ismail Haniyah, publicly congratulating Hamas’ “great triumph” and recruiting fighters to “join this battle in any way they can.” ( https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/11/24/al-jazeera-must-register-as-a-foreign-agent-of-qatar/)

Al Jazeera is also so Pro-Hamas that their Palestinian leadership rival, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which presides over The West Bank, banned it there, citing Al Jazeera’s aim to “incite sedition” and “interfere with Palestinian affairs.” PA Leader Mahmoud Abbas is reported to have lifted that ban in the last 24 hours.

Al Jazeera and its affiliates broadcast in over 150 countries and territories and claim a global audience of more than 430 million people. And they are controlled by Qatar, a State with no freedom of the press, no guarantees of civil liberties, and whose egregious human rights abuses are detailed in reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others. (Remember when Qatar brought in migrants to build its stadium for The World Cup and literally worked them to death? That’s who we’re dealing with here.)

So blatant is the Qatari government’s influence on Al Jazeera, that The U.S. Department of Justice ordered Al Jazeera to register as an agent of the Qatari government in 2020. Al Jazeera has yet to comply.

Al Jazeera readers in The West may be surprised to learn that their favored progressive news source is tied to Qatar’s human rights disaster regime, even moreso when they learn that the “news” it’s bringing to The West stands in stark contrast to what it broadcasts in The East.

Mohamed Fahmy, Al Jazeera English’s former International Bureau Chief, spoke candidly about Al Jazeera in an interview with Arab News (a Saudi publication):

“One day they’re praising the Jewish community on their English-language channel directed at Western viewers, and the next they’re promoting hate speech against the Jews on their Arabic channels, allowing preachers like Qatar-based Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to endorse the killing of innocent women and children on Al Jazeera Arabic just because they’re Jews.” (https://www.arabnews.com/node/1753056/media)

To whit: on his Al Jazeera program “Sharia and Life,” Al-Qaradawi told Arabic viewers:

“Take the treacherous Jewish aggressors… They’ve spread too much tyranny and corruption on Earth. Oh God, take this Jewish Zionist band of aggressors and don’t spare a single one of them. Oh God, count their numbers, slay them one-by-one and spare none.” ( https://www.arabnews.com/node/1753056/media)

And this is but one example.

For another: Al Jazeera is on the record as airing Holocaust denial, for which they were reprimanded in 2019 ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48335169).

Qatar does not just rely on Al Jazeera to disseminate and indoctrinate. In addition to using its airways to promote Hamas, Qatar uses its textbooks to teach antisemitism to its children. According to the Anti Defamation League (ADL) Qatari textbooks teach that Jews (Not Israelis. Jews.) are “treacherous” and “treasonous” and that “Jews bear collective responsibility for killing divine messengers.” ( https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/qatari-textbooks-teach-jews-are-treacherous)

You’d think this messaging would be concerning to President Trump – not only because Israel is an established American ally and the United States has the second-highest Jewish population in the world, but also because Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and all of her children are Jewish.

Plus there’s that whole Qatari-money-directing-and-influencing-American-higher-education problem.

But none of that has stopped him from promoting people with problematic Qatari ties to high-ranking positions in our government.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is, according to Trump anyway, totally on board with Trojan horse gift plane, was a paid foreign agent of Qatar before becoming AG. Per Semafor, in 2019 Bondi, a partner in the DC office of lobbying group Ballard Partners, was receiving $115,000 per month from Qatar to influence Capitol Hill on human trafficking issues.

FBI Director Kash Patel, as Public Citizen noted in its letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee prior to the vote on Patel’s confirmation, was paid and unspecified amount of money by the Embassy of Qatar for “consulting services” as recently as November 2024. Despite this, Patel didn’t register as a foreign agent or disclose his work for Qatar in the FARA database or in his Senate Nominee Questionnaire.

Jared Kushner’s investment firm raised $1.5 Billion (‘B’s everywhere!) from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin was paid an undisclosed amount by Heritage Advisors – yet another cloaked arm of the Qatari government. Campaign consultants Barry Bennett and Doug Watts were charged with and accepted a deferred prosecution deal for accepting Qatari money to influence U.S. policy on the Middle East and misleading investigators about those dealings.

Seeing a pattern yet?

Qatar is very rich, very flashy, and very willing to cater to Trump’s love of wealth, flash, and flattery.

But accepting gifts of this sort from a foreign government is in direct conflict with The Constitution (read the Foreign Emoluments Clause), which may be the fact I should’ve led with, but Trump’s disregard for The Constitution was the subject of my last Op Ed, so if you’re seeking more info on that: ( https://thegeorgiasun.com/opinion/underdressed-and-overeducated/maga-or-whatever-no-clean-water-no-healthcare-and-a-constitutional-crisis-but-look-a-military-parade/)

To accept a “gift” (ahem BRIBE ahem ahem) like this within the bounds of The Constitution, Trump would have to get the approval of Congress. He likely won’t seek it, and even if he did, this Congress has proven itself to be largely lacking in both teeth and spine.

Constitutionality aside, the President of the United States jetting about in a foreign plane is asinine. The security risks alone are reason enough for any sane person to decline Qatar’s offer.

To ensure it isn’t rigged to explode or loaded with spy devices, the plane will have to be taken apart and analyzed piece by piece, down to every last nut and bolt. At the taxpayers’ expense.

Far from saving the USA money, this “gift” is gonna cost us. Our tax dollars, yes, but also The Nation’s very soul.

In accepting this “gift,” Trump is de facto saying that the USA and its policy are being sold to the highest bidder.

But, my fellow Americans, The United States is not for sale.

I will not sit idly by while a foreign agent buys our universities, our media, our government, and our President. Neither should you.

If you love this country – if you honestly do – use your voice to encourage Trump to decline this “gift.” Because I don’t know anyone – Republican, Democrat, or other – who thinks allowing foreign influence from oil-rich, human-rights-poor Qatar will “Make America Great Again.”

The plane is a problem. And it’s up to us to fix it.

Note: This is an opinion article as designated by the the category placement on this website. It is not news coverage. If this disclaimer is funny to you, it isn’t aimed at you — but some of your friends and neighbors honestly have trouble telling the difference.