On October 10, 2025, a joint announcement by the United States and Qatar set off a political firestorm: Qatar would construct its own air force facility within the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, a move hailed by some as a landmark in defense cooperation and condemned by others as a dangerous precedent. The decision, unveiled by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at a Pentagon press conference alongside Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, marked a new chapter in the sometimes turbulent relationship between Washington and Doha.
"The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase the lethality, interoperability," Hegseth said, according to Robert Reich’s Substack. "It’s just another example of our partnership. And I hope you know, Your Excellency, that you can count on us." The facility, which will be built from scratch by Qatar, is set to train Qatari F-15 fighter pilots and house Qatari aircraft, all under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Air Force, as reported by multiple outlets including The Daily Beast and Economic Times.
While military cooperation between the U.S. and its allies is hardly new—German and Singaporean troops have long trained on American soil—never before has a foreign nation been allowed to construct its own dedicated facility within a U.S. base. Qatar’s commitment is significant: a 10-year pledge to build and maintain the facility, reflecting the deepening defense partnership between the two countries. This move underscores Qatar’s strategic importance, especially considering the Al-Udeid Air Base, which already serves as a critical forward operating base for U.S. Central Command.
But the announcement instantly polarized American politics and media. Far-right influencer Laura Loomer, once a fierce Trump loyalist, erupted on X (formerly Twitter) with accusations of betrayal. "Does this mean the call to prayer will be broadcasted in Idaho 5 times a day?" she posted sarcastically, according to The Economic Times. Loomer went further, stating, "If the GOP continues to Islamify our country and continues to allow funders of Islamic terrorism from Qatar to come into our country when they have a documented history of funding Islamic terror, I am not voting in 2026 and won’t be able to encourage others to vote either." Her fury, echoed by other conservative commentators, centered on what she described as hypocrisy and a dangerous precedent for U.S. sovereignty and security.
The timing of the announcement fanned the flames. In May 2025, just months before the air base deal, Qatar gifted former President Trump a $400 million luxury Boeing 747 jet—a gesture that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called "the kind of thing that even Putin would give a double take," according to Robert Reich’s Substack. In April, the Trump Organization inked a deal with a Qatari government-owned company to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar, featuring Trump-branded villas and an 18-hole course. These business ties, coupled with the air base announcement, led critics to allege a quid pro quo.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a key player in Middle East diplomacy, also has deep financial interests in Qatar and the Gulf region. After leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, an investment fund with significant backing from Qatari and Saudi sovereign wealth funds. Just last month, his firm joined a $55 billion deal to take the video-game giant Electronic Arts private, the largest leveraged buyout in history, with Qatari and Saudi participation.
For many on the right, these entanglements raised red flags. Steve Bannon, a prominent MAGA figure, declared there "should never be a military base of a foreign power on the sacred soil of America." Conservative commentator Amy Malek added, "Qatar has spent $100 billion buying influence in the U.S., and it’s paying off. I am in shock that Washington would approve a deal letting Qatar, Hamas’s #1 financier, open a Qatari Air Force facility on U.S. soil." Loomer herself shared an old clip of Trump accusing Qatar of "funding terrorism at a very high level," and wrote, "I never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans."
Yet, the Trump administration and its allies pushed back hard against the narrative that America was ceding ground or sovereignty. Vice President JD Vance, appearing on Fox News just days after Hegseth’s announcement, dismissed the uproar as overblown. "I actually talked to the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, this morning. This is largely a fake story," Vance said. "The reporting that somehow there’s going to be a Qatari base on United States soil, that’s just not true. We are continuing to work with a number of our Arab friends to ensure that we are able to enforce this peace, but we’re not going to let a foreign country have an actual base on American soil." According to Mediaite, Vance insisted that the U.S. would retain jurisdiction and ultimate control over the facility, framing it as an extension of existing military training partnerships.
Indeed, Pentagon officials and Qatari representatives have stressed that the facility is not a Qatari air force base in the traditional sense. Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché to the United States, explained that the project is designed to enhance skills and interoperability, not to establish a foreign-controlled military outpost. The facility will be built and maintained by Qatar, but it will remain on U.S. territory and under American command, as confirmed by sources cited in The Daily Beast.
The roots of this cooperation stretch back years. In 2017, during Trump’s first term, Qatar ordered 36 state-of-the-art F-15 fighter jets from the U.S. for $12 billion, a deal that required advanced training infrastructure. Qatar’s limited geography and challenging terrain have long made domestic pilot training difficult, making U.S.-based facilities an attractive solution. The new Idaho facility, unique among America’s allies, is intended to fill this gap while deepening the bilateral defense relationship.
The decision to move forward came on the heels of a turbulent period in the Middle East. In early October 2025, Trump signed an executive order providing diplomatic, economic, and military security guarantees to Qatar after an Israeli airstrike on Doha. This order, according to reporting in The Daily Beast, effectively equated Qatar’s security with that of the United States—a move with potentially far-reaching implications for the region’s balance of power.
Still, the controversy shows no sign of abating. Detractors argue that the arrangement blurs the line between partnership and compromise, raising questions about oversight, influence, and the potential for foreign entanglements. Supporters counter that the deal strengthens U.S. influence in a volatile region, deepens military readiness, and reflects a pragmatic response to evolving security challenges.
As the dust settles, one thing is clear: the Mountain Home Air Force Base deal is more than just a footnote in U.S.-Qatar relations. It is a flashpoint in a broader debate about America’s alliances, its values, and the sometimes uneasy intersection of business, politics, and national security. Whether it will be remembered as a bold step forward or a misstep remains to be seen, but for now, it has set off a reckoning that neither Washington nor Doha can ignore.
