Expensive bribes pay off. Trump got his $400 million plane as a gift (yes, we hear you screaming about the emoluments clause and we’ll get to that) and as a result of the country of Qatar gifting Trump his palace in the sky, he’s allowing the country to build an air base in Idaho. Qatari jets will fly over U.S. soil. This is certainly new. And as to the emoluments clause, I think that to all intents and purposes that you can color that gone. Axios:
Qatar is planning to build a new air force facility in the United States in the near future — specifically at Idaho’s Mountain Home Air Force Base.
The big picture:Â The base is already home to fighter planes from another foreign country, and has a storied history of defending the U.S.
Driving the news:Â Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a “Qatari Emiri Air Force facility” will be built at the base, which will host Qatar’s F-15 jets and pilots.
-
Hegseth made the announcement alongside his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
-
The announcement ignited several questions about how it’ll work and what Americans can expect.
Here’s what to know.
Will Qatar have a military base in Idaho?
Qatar’s facility at Mountain Home will not be a traditional military base. Instead it will be within a U.S. air base and under U.S. jurisdiction, Axios’ Dave Lawler reports.
-
The facility will be built from the ground up and used to help train Qatari pilots.
-
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability. It’s just another example of our partnership,” Hegseth said.
The decision is another sign of a deepening relationship between Qatar and the United States after Trump extended unprecedented security guarantee to Qatar earlier this month.
The United States has discussed the facility with Qatar over the last several years, Axios reported.
-
Qatar placed a $12 billion order with the U.S. for 36 of the F-15 fighter jets in 2017.
-
However, the country’s airspace is small and its terrain mostly flat desert — limiting the ability to train pilots for various scenarios, a source familiar with the deal told Axios.
What is Idaho’s Mountain Home Airbase?
The base is located in southwestern Idaho in the town of Mountain Home, which sits within Elmore County and is roughly 50 miles southeast of Boise.
- Roughly 5,100 military and civilians, as well as 3,500 family members, reside at the base, per its website.
- It primarily hosts the Air Combat Command’s 366th Fighter Wing.
The base’s mission? “Provide mission-ready Gunfighters to conduct military operations anytime, anywhere,” according to a fact sheet.
Those are the bare bones facts. Bottom line, Qatar spends a lot of money with the U.S., buys planes, and so we’re giving them customer service and showing them how to fly the planes.
It is a bit of a bizarre segue from the rest of the news today. It certainly begs the uestion: Who will bribe Trump next, and for what exactly? That’s the question I have. And I have another question: what happens if Qatar decides to turn on us one day? Yes, there are training facilities in the U.S. involving other countries, but they are countries like Denmark, allies that we’ve had forever. They’re not a threat. You get in bed with the Middle East, who knows what is going to happen? This is not Trump’s concerns. He’s got his toys and he’s going to play with them and that’s that.
In the tRump Mis-Administration, up is down and under is over. I’m not surprised at this move but it sure smacks of danger, like you said, Ursula. What could go wrong? Do you have enough paper to write the reasons on?