Whether or not President Donald Trump ultimately accepts a $400 million Boeing 747-8 from Qatar, the reasons for the country’s offer are best appreciated from an airplane-level view. Descending into the small, but highly influential country reveals a great deal about why Qatar is so interested in securing the support of the United States — and why its survival as an independent state demands it.
Qatar would be relatively powerless in the event of an invasion from its much larger neighbors.
Though it can sometimes feel like an island, or al-jazeera in Arabic, Qatar is a peninsula of rolling sand dunes and salt fields, dotted by ports and major gas and oil industry along the shore.
Look out of the window of the plane and you’ll see the turquoise waters of the Persian Gulf over the North Field, a massive source of natural gas that it shares with Iran. Look out the other side and you’ll see a region of salt flats that corresponds with Qatar’s border with Saudi Arabia, its only land border. This ground was perfect for Al Udeid Air Base, the largest American military base in the Middle East under Central Command, especially after Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups threatened U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
While Qatar has a small military and has spent millions updating its food security systems and its defense, it would be relatively powerless in the event of an invasion from its much larger neighbors. The support of the United States, which has an interest in the security of its main air base, is crucial to the strategic security of Qatar and the free flow of commerce and oil through the Gulf.
But that security was called into question shortly after a visit Trump made to the region during his first term, when Saudi Arabia, feeling confident it had secured the president’s backing, deemed Qatar’s financial support of the Muslim Brotherhood to be support of extremism and led a blockade of the country.
Food supplies were threatened. Families were split. Even camel herds were caught between the newly closed border of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. No longer able to fly over Saudi Arabia, Qatar Airways flights were diverted to Iranian airspace. Iran stepped in and sent planes and ships full of groceries. But far from causing Qatar to back down, the blockade seemed to strengthen the country and cement the links between Sheikh Tamim al Thani and Qatar’s residents. Eventually, in 2021, as President Trump was leaving office, the blockade was lifted, and Qatar’s ruler arrived in Al-‘Ula, Saudi Arabia, and signed a joint statement to coordinate their national media, fight terrorism and “stand firm against any confrontation that would undermine national or regional security.”
Qatar was able to change its policies and affirm its ultimate alliances with the U.S. and its Gulf neighbors, without appearing to fully back down. Al-Jazeera, the Doha-based network that the Saudis had demanded be shuttered, remains the major Arabic news service for the region, and Qatar did not sever its ties with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The main lesson Qatar learned was the importance of securing allies on both sides of the U.S. political divide.
Long before Trump’s election, Qatar had coordinated a campaign to build good will in the United States, beginning with a major donation to Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, earning the small country a great deal gratitude in the deep-red state of Louisiana. Some of that money went to Xavier University of Louisiana and to Tulane University, but Qatar also supports other U.S. institutions of higher education; it has paid generous sums to Georgetown, Virginia Commonwealth University and others that set up campuses in Doha’s Education City.
Long before Trump’s election, Qatar had coordinated a campaign to build good will in the United States. Organizations such as Brookings Doha Center are funded as think tanks, communicating to the so-called Washington establishment. Qatar may have assumed, like many observers, that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would defeat Trump in 2016. Its courtship of the Republican Party began shortly after the blockade started. That courtship continues to this day, as evidenced by the country’s offer of the plane to President Trump. But Qatar has offered the U.S. and its allies something even more valuable than money. Instead of breaking all ties with Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and other actors in the region, Qatar has stepped up very publicly as a mediator, communicating with those same groups and offering to try to pressure them financially into deals. Far from being a problem, Qatar emerged as a major non-NATO ally, as declared by former President Joe Biden, an ideal partner in peacemaking. Qatar remains indispensable to Trump and his Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiator Steve Witkoff; and Qatar was crucial to the success of some of the short-term deals that led to the release of Israeli and American hostages. Qatar is now free to court high net worth individuals from around the world and a secure Islamic banking infrastructure. Qatar’s Investment Authority, which invests more than half a trillion dollars in projects around the globe, continues to secure deals. Not wanting to be outdone by Saudi Arabia or UAE, which have also inked major economic deals with Trump, the White House announced more than $200 billion of economic deals with Qatar, including the sale of 210 Boeing aircraft. On April 30, 1840, the Sultana, a vessel sent by the sultan of Oman, arrived in New York. It was laden with gifts meant for the personal use of President Martin Van Buren. There were two Arabian stud horses, gold mounted swords, Persian carpets and other luxury items. The ship’s arrival caused a political crisis for Van Buren who, in the middle of a re-election campaign, was caught between not wanting to offend the sultan and not wanting to take emoluments from a foreign power. Congress eventually agreed to accept the gifts on behalf of the government of the United States. The horses were sold (including one to a former member of Andrew Jackson’s Cabinet) and other items became a part of the future collections of the Smithsonian. To avoid a constitutional crisis, perhaps Trump could cite the Van Buren precedent and offer to sell the plane and add the proceeds to the U.S. Treasury. As for Qatar, offering Trump a plane may not turn out to be as deft of an investment and Qatar’s original intent could have been misunderstood. A few days after the story broke, the prime minister of Qatar explained that the gift was actually meant to be a “government-to-government transaction.” Qatar’s government seems aware that too obvious of an attempt to influence President Trump could open Qatar up to the risk of again being out of favor when Republicans are no longer in control.
Allen Fromherz
Allen Fromherz is a professor of Middle East, Gulf and Mediterranean history at Georgia State University. He directs the Middle East Studies Center at GSU and was President of the American Institute for Maghreb Studies (2015-2021). He is founding series editor, with Matt Buehler, of Edinburgh Studies on the Maghrib and is North Africa senior editor for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia Africa. Since 2024, he is also Co-Chair of the Monsoon Book Prizes, which celebrate the archaeology, history and political economy of the Indian Ocean world. 
