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How Much Does it Cost to Buy America? Ask Qatar.
It’s not just the 747. A Free Press investigation reveals that the Gulf state has spent almost $100 billion across Congress, colleges, think tanks, and corporations. What does it want in return?
(Illustration by The Free Press)
By The Free Press
It’s Wednesday, May 14. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large.
We have one story for you this morning. And it’s a very important one.
Today, President Trump is set to visit Qatar, a small Middle Eastern monarchy with 300,000 citizens on a peninsula in the Persian Gulf.
You’ve already seen the headlines: Qatar just offered Trump a 747 luxury jumbo jet to serve as the next Air Force One. But Qatar’s reach in America goes well beyond this over-the-top gift to the president.
For the last several months, Free Press reporters Frannie Block and Jay Solomon have investigated how Qatar leveraged its tremendous wealth into unparalleled influence over the country’s most powerful people and institutions. The Free Press reviewed thousands of lobbying, real estate, and corporate filings. We interviewed dozens of American, European, and Middle Eastern diplomats and defense officials. We analyzed secret intelligence briefings and previously undisclosed government documents.
And what we found was astounding: Qatar, long a refuge for and a financier of Islamist terrorists, has spent almost $100 billion over the past two decades to influence our schools, our universities, our media, our Congress, and even the White House itself. In return for all that cash, it has won the affection of leading lawmakers, Washington dealmakers, powerful journalists, and White House officials.
So what does Qatar want to do with all the goodwill it’s purchased? That’s just one of the questions Jay and Frannie’s reporting sets out to answer.
Like many great scandals, this one has been hiding in plain sight, with Qatar openly throwing cash around to buy allies in America while actively supporting groups that push Islamist radicalism in the Middle East.
It is the definition of a must-read investigation—a shocking window into how power works in America today. Read it here or click just below. And please share it with others.
—Bari
How Qatar Bought America
Frannie Block and Jay Solomon
How Qatar Bought America
On Wednesday, Donald Trump will travel to Qatar. On his trip, the president will visit Al Udeid Air Base, the largest American military facility in the region, and attend meetings with the ruling Al Thani family. Perhaps he will also thank them for the $400 million
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