President Donald Trump is defending his decision to accept a $400 million Boeing 747 from Qatar—despite his past condemnation of the Gulf nation as a “funder of terrorism.”
In 2017, while speaking from the White House Rose Garden, Trump publicly accused Qatar of supporting terrorism “at a very high level,” aligning with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in a diplomatic and economic blockade of the small but influential nation, CNN reported at the time.
“The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump said in 2017. “Do we take the easy road, or do we finally take a hard but necessary action? We have to stop the funding of terrorism.”
EXCLUSIVE: We dug up a video of Donald Trump trashing Qatar in 2017 calling them “funders of terrorism.” I’m sure he would hate if this clip changed their mind to give him a $400 million plane – so definitely don’t repost it. pic.twitter.com/KYbZXmTaWw
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) May 12, 2025
At the time, he called on Qatar to halt its financial support for extremist groups such as al-Qaida, ISIS and Hezbollah.
The clips resurfaced days ago after Trump began embracing a vastly different tone, praising Qatar’s leadership after the country offered to donate a luxury jet. Trump justified the jet donation as a patriotic cost-saving measure amid delays in the Air Force One replacement program.
Here is Trump calling Qatar one of the world’s biggest funders of terrorism in 2016. Now he intends to take a $400,000,000 bribe from Qatar, and that is after he signed a $5.5 billion dollar hotel and golf deal in Qatar. pic.twitter.com/OUW8io66eC
— Joseph Gelman (@ifofgot) May 11, 2025
The $400 million aircraft, gifted by the Qatari Ministry of Defense to the U.S. Department of Defense, is slated for temporary presidential use and eventual transfer to Trump’s presidential library.
The announcement came with intense backlash from both sides of the political spectrum. In defense, Trump seemingly compared the gesture to France gifting the Statue of Liberty, and claimed the donation helps taxpayers and serves the country’s interests.
Originally published on Latin Times
