President Trump’s growing financial and diplomatic entanglement with Qatar is raising new questions as the Gulf nation offers a $400 million luxury jet to serve as a temporary Air Force One all while Trump’s personal business strikes a real estate deal in the country. Now, some are wondering: is Qatar playing Trump?
The proposed aircraft transfer, which the Qatari royal family has presented as a gift, has triggered criticism over the blurred line between diplomatic relations and Trump’s private financial interests. Trump’s company recently signed an agreement to develop a golf course and luxury villas along Qatar’s eastern coastline a lucrative opportunity for the former president’s business empire.
Trump appeared to acknowledge the aircraft deal in a Sunday post on Truth Social, while downplaying concerns over its implications. “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, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump wrote.
The jet arrangement comes just ahead of Trump’s upcoming trip to the Middle East, where he is set to visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. He’s reportedly aiming to return with up to $1 trillion in deals and investment pledges to promote economic partnerships between the U.S. and the Gulf states.
While Trump frames these engagements as wins for American business and diplomacy, ethics experts are voicing alarm over the overlap between his political power and personal profit. The optics of a U.S. president doing business with a foreign monarchy while receiving multimillion-dollar “gifts” from that same government are fueling criticism that these relationships are less about foreign policy and more about financial leverage.
With Qatar now seen as both a diplomatic partner and a business collaborator, the question lingers: is this all part of a savvy strategy by Doha to curry favor with Trump through a blend of flattery, luxury, and investment? Some within diplomatic and political circles suggest that the Gulf monarchy may be seeking to exploit Trump’s appetite for personal gains to strengthen its influence in Washington leaving both critics and allies wondering if the U.S. president is being outmaneuvered.