Tucker Carlson at the Doha Forum

Janet Levy:
On September 9th, Israel conducted a precise airstrike in Doha targeting senior Hamas leaders responsible for the October 7th Massacre. News reports claimed they were in the terrorist financing hub to discuss the Trump-backed “ceasefire” proposal.

Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, launched the strike because they had evidence that Hamas was about to attack Israel.

Twenty days later, on September 29th, two significant events took place at Trump’s direction.

1) The president, often called “Israel’s best friend,” insisted that Netanyahu contact the Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani from the Oval Office to apologize with “deep regret” for violating his country’s sovereignty. The joint White House and Qatari scripted apology included a promise that Israel would not take such actions again. A Qatari diplomat was reportedly present to make sure Bibi stuck to the prepared script.

2) That same day, Trump issued the executive order “Assuring the Security of the State of Qatar,” pledging an explicit security guarantee to the Islamic kingdom, including diplomatic, economic, and military measures, in response to any external attacks against it. “An attack on Qatar is an attack on the U.S.” The order equated armed aggression against Doha as a threat to its own security and established a security partnership with an Islamist country that enjoys the status of Major Non-NATO Ally.

On October 10th, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced an agreement to host the Qatari Air Force training facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.

Trump is building a luxury golf resort and villas in Qatar in partnership with the state-owned Qatari Diar and Dar Global, a Saudi real estate developer. The project is valued at around $9 billion and will include an 18-hole golf course and beachside villas.

The Doha project is part of a broader effort to develop Trump-branded properties in the Gulf, including projects in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Could this apparent conflict of interest influence U.S. foreign policy?

NOTE 1: Qatar is the world’s largest funder of Islamic terrorism. It finances Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS, etc., and shelters the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

NOTE 2: Trump often claims that he doesn’t take the presidential salary of $400,000. As Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution states, the president must receive a fixed compensation. To bypass this requirement, he donates the money to various federal agencies and causes. It seems like a very small sacrifice compared to the Mega deals in the Gulf.

By Hugh Fitzgerald | Dec 7, 2025

Tucker Carlson speaking with attendees at the 2023 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Tucker Carlson, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia

Qatar is the main foreign backer of Hamas. Hamas leaders live in luxury in Doha. Qatar has for years supplied Hamas with money, weapons, and diplomatic support. And now, Tucker Carlson is a featured guest at this year’s Doha Forum: “Tucker Carlson to headline Qatar’s Doha Forum, triggering pro-Israel backlash,” Jerusalem Post, December 5, 2025:

According to the event agenda and parallel reporting by US media outlet Mediaite, Carlson is scheduled to interview Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, on stage, while Patel appears in his capacity as co-founder and CEO of the Tucker Carlson Network.

Tucker Carlson is not merely an invitee, but has been given pride of place, for it is he who will be interviewing the man who is second only to the emir, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, that is, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. Do you think they will discuss the “genocide” in Gaza? Or how “it is time to stop the killing and create a Palestinian state that will live “side by side, in peace and security, with its Israeli neighbor.” Yes to the first, yes to the second.

They will share the program with an unusually eclectic roster that includes former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr., Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, senior European and Gulf officials, and high-profile journalists such as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and editors from outlets including The Guardian and Foreign Policy….

I wonder what the honoraria will be for these guests, who came such a long way to be with so many well-pleased pleasers of the Al-Thani family. For Hillary Clinton, I’d guess a few hundred thousand dollars. For Donald Trump, Jr. the take should be about the same. No need to pay Bill Gates; he is not coming to Qatar for the money. Ever since his daughter married an Egyptian Muslim, Nayel Nassar, in a Muslim ceremony, his interest in the Muslim world has increased. Christiane Amanpour is the television journalist who has displayed her anti-Israel animus for decades; she will be most welcome in Qatar. CNN’s current policies would not allow her to accept a fat honorarium, but perhaps the Qataris will find another way to express to this Old Fish (Amanpour is an alumna of New Hall School in Chelmsford, England, where two of my closest relatives went) their admiration and esteem. Something in the untraceable cryptocurrency line might be just the ticket. Perhaps some investigative reporter could ferret out just how much Qatari money was doled out to some, though not all, of the Doha Forum participants. Keep in mind the huge bribes Qatar paid to soccer officials in order to be able to host the 2022 World Cup. Bribery is a way of life, after all, for the fabulously wealthy Arab oil states, and that includes the Qatari government.

In June, Loomer circulated what she said were Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings, arguing that Qatar’s US embassy paid more than $200,000 for an earlier Carlson interview with the Qatari prime minister about the region and the war with Iran, and calling the program a “paid propaganda piece.” That claim, which conservative Jewish site 5 Towns Central reported on, has not been independently verified.

Carlson’s camp has flatly rejected the accusations. In a statement cited by Mediaite, Patel said “allegations that Tucker Carlson or Tucker Carlson Network took money from any foreign country for an interview or for any other reason are categorically and definitively false and defamatory,” adding that neither Carlson nor his company “has ever taken a penny from Qatar or any foreign country.”…

Well then, if Carlson is telling the truth, and Lara Loomer has unfairly accused him, wouldn’t you think he would rush to sue her for defamation? But he’s not doing that. Why not?

Israeli and Western officials have relied on Qatar to broker hostage and ceasefire deals, even as critics accuse Doha of legitimizing Hamas by providing it with political protection, funding, and a luxury base of operations. Analyses by Israeli think tanks like the Institute for National Security Studies describe Qatar’s approach as a “two-pronged” policy, combining harsh criticism of Israeli policies with a central mediating role and heavy humanitarian involvement in Gaza.

Those tensions deepened in September, when Israel allegedly struck a Hamas leadership meeting in Doha, prompting Qatar to denounce the attack as “state terrorism” while insisting that hosting Hamas officials was part of internationally backed mediation efforts, including with Israel and the US….

The Israeli strike — which, unusually for the IDF, failed to hit the right target — was not “state terrorism.” There was no intention to terrorize the civilian population of Qatar, but only to eliminate a handful of Hamas terrorists who Mossad knew were about to launch an attack on the Jewish state.

Tucker Carlson did not go all the way to Qatar to interview one more member of the Al-Thani family just for the fun of it. Investigative journalists, do your stuff. See what you can find out about Tucker Carlson and the possible expression of gratitude, in untraceable cash or cryptocurrency, that the Al-Thani family may have presented him with, and that he no doubt will insist it would have been impolite for him to refuse.