After Donald Trump’s successful visit to the Gulf States last week questions have arisen concerning the influence of the Islamist Emirate on the Trump administration and conservative influencers, including the gift of a $400 million 747 from Qatar.
The Washington Examiner now reported that Qatar paid lobbyists to arrange pro-Qatar coverage by host Tucker Carlson.
Last week, reporters Frannie Block and Jay Solomon issued a long report on Qatari influence operations in the United States on Bari Weiss’ The Free Press, revealing the Gulf Emirate has spent almost $100 billion to establish its influence in Congress, universities, newsrooms, think tanks, and US corporations. President Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, Justice Secretary Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have worked for Qatar lobbyists, The Free Press reported. Trump buddy and Mideast negotiator Steve Witkoff received $623 million from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund to bail out a failed investment in New York’s Park Lane Hotel, as The Gateway Pundit reported in January.
Qatar is not just any energy-rich Gulf State with more money than is good for it – it is one of the main operating bases of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Gaza arm Hamas. Muslim Brotherhood thought leader Yusuf al Qaradawi preached from the Al Wahhab mosque in Doha, home of the radical Islamist Wahhabi movement, which inspired every radical Islamist terror group from Hamas and Hezbollah to Al Qaeda and ISIS. Al Qaradawi was buried there in 2022. Qatar gave at least $1.8 billion to Hamas since 2007 and hosted the top Hamas leadership in luxury hotels for years, who were also billionaires. Qatar funded the Al Jazeera TV network with at least $2 billion, which employed at least 6 Hamas terrorists and has been banned in Israel, Egypt and the Gulf States as a Hamas front.
According to the Free Press report, Qatar has spent $225 million on lobbying and public-relations efforts in DC since 2017. “The U.S. government found that in 2021 alone, Qatar employed 35 registered lobbyists and public-relations firms at a total cost of more than $51 million,” Block and Solomon wrote, three times as much as Israel spends.
Up until the Trump election Nov. 5, only 10% of Qatar’s lobbying money went to conservative outlets or commenters, according to a Washington Examiner review of Department of Justice records. After the Trump victory, Qatar stepped up its MAGA lobbying to 50% or more.
In 2022, Qatar’s Al Thani family gave $50 million to the conservative news site Newsmax, Free Press reported. “Newsmax’s founder encouraged staff to soften their coverage of Qatar.” Qatar also funded conservative radio host John Fredericks’ company, Common Sense Media Holdings, with at least $180,000 2017-2019, the Free Press reports. Fredericks was Virginia vice chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and active in the 2020 campaign.
Qatar also has ties to South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, mainly through Qatar Airways’ purchase of 40 Boeing aircraft, “including 787 Dreamliners made near Charleston that were part of an $11.7 billion order in 2016. Qatari-owned military technology company Barzan Aeronautical then announced plans to build spy drones at a new facility nearby,” Free Press reported.
On the weekend, the Washington Examiner revealed that Qatar allegedly funded an interview by popular conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in March. According to the Examiner, the Qatari Embassy paid lobbyists Lumen8 Advisors $180,000 per month “to provide media and communication coaching and consulting services”, which allegedly included facilitating the Al Thani interview.
Tucker Carlson had categorically denied accepting money from Qatar in an interview with Megy Kelly April 29.
Critics had suspected Carlson of accepting Qatari money ever since ZeroHedge revealed he had received $15 million from Iranian-Pakistani backer Omeed Malik in 2024.
But Tucker denies the allegations.
Since the inauguartion of the second Trump administration, Carlson became one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the top echelons of Trumpworld, and hosted pro-Qatar negotiatior Steve Witkoff, who called the Qataris “good, decent people” who “want to be acknowledged as a peacemaker.”
“In the past, they’ve had some views that are a little bit more radical … from an Islamist standpoint than they are today, but it’s moderated quite a bit,” Witkoff told Tucker Carlson.
Conservative outlets like Fox News Digital, Just The News, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, and the Washington Examiner were all “targeted to varying degrees by Qatari foreign agents in the months following Trump’s election,” the Free Press reported.
The post Press Reports: Qatar Spends Billions to Influence Trump Admin, including Funds linked to Tucker Carlson – But Tucker Vehemently Denies Accepting Money from Qatar appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.