Why Trump's pledge to defend Qatar is so extraordinary

[LetMyPeopleVote]

This executive order is not binding on future administrations. If trump wanted to really protect Qatar, he should had negotiated a treaty but such a treaty would have no chance of passage.

Qatar gave trump that $450 million plane which the US is having to pay $1 billion to upgrade. In addition there are the other bribes being paid by Qatar to trump and Jared.

There are a number of issues listed in the article with this deal but I will focus on the conflicts of interest

Why Trump’s pledge to defend Qatar is so extraordinary www.cnn.com/2025/10/01/p...

— timethiefmedia - Canadian forever🍁conservative never (@timethiefmedia.bsky.social) 2025-10-01T21:11:32.907Z

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/01/politics/qatar-pledge-trump-analysis

Trump’s personal ties to Qatar
The situation also resurfaces Trump and his family’s own controversial ties to Qatar – a nation that’s clearly sought to curry favor with the president.

The acceptance of the Qatari jet is particularly dicey given Trump has said the luxury plane will be transferred to his presidential library after his term ends, rather than remaining in use by the US government.

And in April, the Trump Organization announced plans for a Trump-branded golf resort in Qatar that was supported by a firm backed by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

The New York Times reported two weeks ago that Trump’s controversial sale of valuable artificial intelligence chips to the United Arab Emirates coincided in highly suspicious ways with a lucrative cryptocurrency deal with the Emiratis.

Trump and his personal businesses have clearly blurred the lines between government business and personal interests in the Middle East. The White House denied conflicts of interest to the Times, saying a key negotiator, Steve Witkoff, was “working with ethics officials and counsel to ensure he is in full compliance.”

The Qatar executive order also raises all kinds of questions – some of which are about connections between possible personal benefits and official government actions.

Qatar has given Trump some extraordinary gifts. Now he appears to have given it one right back.

[Melon]

1. I think there are larger questions

Within the Middle East. When I worked in the region, if you were flying from Qatar, Saudi wouldn’t allow the plane to cross their airspace. You had to fly down the strait of Hormuz alongside Iran adding a lot of time to flights. Qatar and Saudi didn’t get along because Qatar is a known sponsor of terrorist in the region. Other countries had big issues with Qatar. They are funding the Houthi rebels who attack Saudi and allied shipping near Oman. They also fund Hamas.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. The CNN article addressed the fact that the US is getting into a mess

From the article posted in the OP
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/01/politics/qatar-pledge-trump-analysis

It inserts the United States more into a tinderbox
This is also a security guarantee in a highly combustible region.

Trump is pledging to come to the aid of a country where Israel launched strikes less than a month ago (against Hamas leaders in Doha) and which Iran struck less than three months ago. Indeed, Qatar has regularly found itself enmeshed in Middle Eastern conflicts.

As recently as 2017, Qatar was also embroiled in the worst diplomatic crisis in the Middle East in decades. At the time, other major nations cut ties with it over its alleged support for terrorism and broader destabilization of the region.

There are geopolitical reasons to maintain a close alliance with Qatar, with both Republican and Democratic administrations recognizing that in recent years. Qatar has also played a significant role in Trump’s attempts to forge a peace deal in Gaza.

(Trump this week presented his 20-point plan for peace in the enclave, which did not include a provision from an earlier version saying Israel would not attack Qatar.)

But Trump’s move is not just forging a controversial and much-closer bond; it’s forging it in a region where it could be called upon to make good on this promise.

This is a very dumb move by trump. trump is paying off Qatar for the airplane and other gifts to trump and his family

[GreenWave]

2. Why not name that plane "Charlie Kirk"?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. MaddowBlog-Trump offers Qatar, which gave him a fancy plane, a NATO-like security guarantee

Without bothering to go through Congress, the president signed an executive order this week vowing to defend Qatar in the event of a foreign attack.

Trump seems to offer protection to Qatar as a favor for donating a 0 million airplane for him. Where quid meets pro quo.

Trump offers Qatar, which gave him a fancy plane, a NATO-like security guarantee www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— @jimrissmiller.bsky.social 2025-10-02T20:25:11.905Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-offers-qatar-gave-fancy-plane-nato-security-guarantee-rcna235175

In his first term, Trump slammed Qatar as a country that he said had been a “funder of terrorism at a very high level.” His perspective on the Middle Eastern country has apparently evolved quite a bit over eight years.

But the president’s shift has gone well beyond rhetorical praise. Politico reported:

The White House published an executive order on Wednesday vowing to defend Qatar in the event of an attack from another country, a remarkable security guarantee for a single country akin to NATO’s Article 5. The order, which President Donald Trump signed Monday, states that the White House will now consider ‘any armed attack’ on Qatar ‘as a threat to the peace and security of the United States

.’

Trump’s new executive order added that the U.S. was prepared to take “all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and the State of Qatar.”.....

Politico’s report added, “The unilateral creation of any Article 5-like security guarantees by a president — under the Constitution, treaties must be ratified by the Senate— is highly unusual.” That’s true, though it also understates matters. CNN’s Aaron Blake wrote a good analysis on this:

The Constitution explicitly gives the power over treaties to the Senate, and here’s the president bypassing Congress over something as serious as potentially committing the US military to war. Trump has bypassed Congress on plenty of things that are normally under its purview, mostly notably the tariffs that are currently being decided by the Supreme Court. And he’s mostly been successful thanks to congressional Republicans’ acquiescence. They often don’t want to challenge him. But yet again, Trump is pushing the envelope.

Yes, and he’s doing so in support of a country that just happens to have given him a free luxury jet.

It’s worth emphasizing that Trump’s executive order is not legally binding. Unlike the U.S.’ commitment to NATO, which has been ratified by lawmakers, Trump’s presidential successor would be free to ignore his vow of protection for Qatar.