The Qatari Emiri Air Force now has the opportunity to train its F-15 pilots in the United States.

Last Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the United States will allow Qatar to build a training facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base (AFB), Idaho. The announcement was made after Secretary Hegseth met with Qatar’s deputy prime minister, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, at the Pentagon earlier in the day.

The new facility, which will include a few additional buildings at Mountain Home AFB, will be used to train Qatari Air Force pilots on the F-15QA. A variant of the F-15 Eagle, it served as the basis for the US Air Force’s F-15EX Eagle II, now being built by Boeing. 

“Today we’re announcing [and] signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho. The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase the lethality, [and] interoperability,” Hegseth said on Friday. “It’s just another example of our partnership.”

MAGA Anger Over the News

The news that Qatari forces will be training in the United States wasn’t received well, notably by those who are usually very supportive of President Donald Trump.

Far-right activist and provocateur Laura Loomer was among the most vocal critics of the news that Qatar will soon have a training base in Idaho, which, in a social media post, she called “an abomination.”

The news that Qatar would have any presence in the Gem State was enough for Loomer, a fierce ally of President Donald Trump, to break ranks with the administration and condemn the move. She was far from alone. Many in the MAGA movement questioned how the decision fit with a supposedly “America First” agenda.

The fact that the news came just weeks after Trump signed an executive order that the United States would guarantee the security of the Middle Eastern state only served to inflame the anger from the far right.

“Qatar bankrolls Hamas, ISIS, the Taliban, al-Nusra, and the Muslim Brotherhood. It plays both sides—the arsonist and the firefighter—funding jihad, then posing as a ‘mediator.’ This isn’t ‘shared defense goals.’ It’s a shared delusion. We’re not building peace. We’re building a launchpad for the Islamic disaster,” wrote conservative commentator Amy Mek in a post on X last week.

Likewise, critics of the administration were equally vocal on social media, suggesting it was a quid pro quo for Qatar “gifting” a 747-8 to the United States, which will be used as Trump’s future Air Force One.

Both views are largely incorrect.

Foreign Training Isn’t Limited to Qatar

The most crucial point to address is that the United States is not giving Qatar, a US partner since the early 1970s when the country gained independence from the UK, a military base. The Qatari military will instead have an enlarged presence at a US military base in Idaho, similar to other international training facilities that operate around the country.

Since 2008, the Republic of Singapore’s 428th Fighter Squadron, known as the “Buccaneers,” has been based at Mountain Home AFB. Meanwhile, German Luftwaffe personnel participated in training at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, from 1992 to 2019. It previously operated from George AFB, California.

Foreign operators of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II have trained at Luke AFB, Arizona, while a new facility was completed at Ebbing AFB, Arkansas.

A Key Middle Eastern Ally

What Mek, Loomer, and others are also missing is that this deal had been in the works for years. In 2022, then-President Joe Biden designated Qatar a “Major non-NATO Ally” (MNNA), acknowledging the strategic importance of the relationship and providing Doha with special military and economic privileges.

The other component of this deal, which involves training personnel, dates back to 2017, during the first Trump administration, when it approved the sale of the F-15QA to Doha. Selling the F-15QA was always going to result in having Qatari personnel train in the United States, just as Polish, Belgian, Dutch, and other NATO member personnel train on the F-35 at Luke AFB. The sales of these advanced aircraft almost always involve training, which can be best handled within the United States.  

Moreover, as The Associated Press reported, the “new facilities will be built by local construction crews, and local workers will likely be employed at the base to support the training operations.”

All of the construction and “associated expenses” will be paid by Doha, but the United States Air Force will handle security.

Two US Bases in Qatar

The final fact being overlooked by critics of the announcement is that the United States has maintained a significant presence in two military bases in Qatar. Although Sayliyah Army Base has since ceased operations, it served as a preposition base for nearly two decades.

Currently, Al Udeid Air Base, located outside of Doha, is the largest US military installation in the Middle East and a critical strategic hub for US operations in the region. The US military has used Al Udeid since September 2001, and there are currently around 10,000 US troops stationed there, far larger than the few hundred Qataris that will be based in Idaho.

In January, the United States and Qatar also extended an agreement that will see US personnel remain at Al Udeid for at least another decade.