Washington– WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is moving forward with plans to build a dedicated facility in Idaho to train pilots from Qatar, an important U.S. ally in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday.
Hegseth, who made the announcement during the Qatari Defense Minister’s visit, said the facility to be built at Mountain Home Air Base “will host a contingent of F-15 aircraft and Qatari pilots to enhance our joint training, increase lethality, and interoperability.”
The arrangement is not unusual. Pentagon officials noted that similar facilities have been set up for other allies for decades, and that the Idaho base already hosts a fighter squadron from Singapore.
But this news sparked a sharp rebuke from a close Trump ally Right-wing influencer Laura LoomerHe described the plan as an “abomination” and accused the Qataris of links to Islamic terrorist organizations.
“No foreign country should have a military base on American soil. Especially Muslim countries,” Loomer wrote in a social media post just hours after Hegseth’s announcement.
Although Loomer holds no official position within the Trump administration, her online complaints have a history of getting results. Her criticism led to her expulsion Officials at the National Security CouncilDr. Vinay Prasad, Chief Vaccines Officer At The Food And Drug Administration, And General Tim Hoff, Head of the National Security Service.
A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to provide information that had not been publicly disclosed, said Qatar would pay for the construction of the new facility. When asked for further details, Hegseth’s office said it had nothing to offer beyond the minister’s statements.
The announcement comes just days after President Donald Trump He signed an executive order Pledging to use all measures, including American military action, to defend Qatar, which hosts The largest American military base In the Middle East.
Loomer also criticized this decision, writing, “I don’t want to die for Qatar. Do you?” On social media. However, she was not alone.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board also questioned the pledge, writing that “this is a decision that can and should be debated.”
“Instead, it came suddenly, an executive order that followed no public debate,” the board wrote.
The small gas-rich country played a major role And in the negotiations on the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the war in Gaza, as well as in several other key negotiations. Doha, the capital of Qatar, came under a surprise attack from Israel last month while members of Hamas were in the city last month to discuss a ceasefire.
Qatar also lavished Jumbo jet worth $400 million On Trump to use it as Air Force One.
However, the Qataris’ association with US military aviation predates these recent developments.
In 2020, US Air Force announced A deal was signed with Qatar to sell more than 35 F-15 fighter aircraft.
An Air Force environmental study, completed two years later, revealed that Mountain Home Air Base was proposing to build a facility that would house 12 Qatari F-15 aircraft and about 300 additional personnel from the Qatari and US air forces.
While the US military has a long history of training pilots for allied nations, the practice came under scrutiny in 2019 after a deadly mass shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola that killed three US service members and wounded several others.
The shooter, Mohammed Saeed Al-Shamrani, was a Saudi Air Force officer who was training at the Pensacola base. The FBI said he was connected to the extremist group Al Qaeda and had been in contact with it before the shooting.
In the aftermath of the shooting, US sent home The investigation revealed that 21 other Saudi military cadets had expressed jihadist or anti-American sentiments on social media pages or had “contact with child pornography,” including in online chat rooms, according to officials at the time. However, the United States continued to train Saudi pilots.
Loomer referred to the incident in her social media posts on Friday. She wrote on social media: “Why are we trying to train more Muslims how to fly planes on American soil? Haven’t we already learned our lesson?”