Dramatic Rise in Qatari Foreign Influence Operations Targeteting US Rightwing Media

There is renewed media atten­tion to Qatar facil­i­tat­ing for­eign influ­ence oper­a­tions that tar­get con­ser­v­a­tive and MAGA media in the Unit­ed States. The Gulf coun­try is seek­ing to build influ­ence among US con­ser­v­a­tives, includ­ing facil­i­tat­ing high-pro­file inter­views and offer­ing sub­stan­tial con­sult­ing fees. On 20 May 2025, the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er report­ed that Qatari agents had dra­mat­i­cal­ly increased out­reach to right-wing out­lets fol­low­ing Pres­i­dent Trump’s 2024 elec­tion vic­to­ry. The arti­cle begins:

After Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s vic­to­ry in the 2024 elec­tion, for­eign agents work­ing on behalf of the Qatari gov­ern­ment appear to have shift­ed their focus to right-wing media, fuel­ing spec­u­la­tion that the ter­ror-linked Gulf state is attempt­ing to win influ­ence among con­ser­v­a­tives. Between Jan­u­ary 1, 2024, and elec­tion day, just over 10% of com­mu­ni­ca­tions sent by Qatari for­eign agents to the media were direct­ed to con­ser­v­a­tive out­lets or com­menters, accord­ing to a Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er review of Depart­ment of Jus­tice records. Since Repub­li­cans won con­trol of the White House and Con­gress on elec­tion day, the pro­por­tion of mes­sages sent by Qatari oper­a­tives to con­ser­v­a­tive out­lets and com­menters has surged to more than half of their total cor­re­spon­dence with the media. Per­haps Qatar’s biggest vic­to­ry in its post-elec­tion right-wing media cam­paign thus far was secur­ing an inter­view between Tuck­er Carl­son and Qatari Prime Min­is­ter Mohammed bin Abdul­rah­man Al Thani in March. The inter­view, which has raked up near­ly six mil­lion views across X and YouTube, was friend­ly, with Carl­son prais­ing the coun­try. Qatar paid top dol­lar to ensure this inter­view took place.

Read more: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/3414894/conservative-media-targeted-qatari-foreign-influence-operations/

Key Points

• Qatari for­eign influ­ence oper­a­tions tar­get con­ser­v­a­tive media, with a surge in out­reach after the 2024 Trump victory.

• Qatar facil­i­tat­ed a high-pro­file inter­view between Tuck­er Carl­son and its prime min­is­ter, invest­ing heav­i­ly in media consulting.

• Notable con­ser­v­a­tive out­lets, includ­ing Fox News and the New York Post, received pitch­es and pub­lished pro-Qatar content.

• DOJ enforce­ment changes may allow more unreg­is­tered for­eign lob­by­ing, rais­ing con­cerns about undis­closed influence.

History of Qatari Influence Operations: Following the Gulf State’s Traces in the US

Qatar is one of the most pro­lif­ic influ­ence actors in the world, with a spe­cif­ic focus on shap­ing pub­lic opin­ion in the Unit­ed States. The country’s his­to­ry of influ­ence oper­a­tions in the US includes the tar­get­ing of a Repub­li­can con­gress­man through an ex-CIA offi­cer work­ing for Qatar, high-lev­el White House–Qatar lux­u­ry jet talks, and the pros­e­cu­tion of a US sen­a­tor charged with aid­ing Qatari gov­ern­ment inter­ests. Beyond the US, Qatar has engaged in numer­ous attempts to manip­u­late Euro­pean democ­ra­cy and has secured favor­able media cov­er­age through finan­cial incen­tives. These oper­a­tions are com­ple­ment­ed by broad­er lob­by­ing and soft pow­er strate­gies, includ­ing fund­ing think tanks and uni­ver­si­ties, as well as lever­ag­ing media and dig­i­tal plat­forms to shape pub­lic opin­ion, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing polit­i­cal­ly sen­si­tive peri­ods such as the Trump administration.

Exter­nal References:

• The New Lob­by­ing: Qatar Tar­get­ed 250 Trump ‘Influ­encers’ to Change U.S. Policy

• Watch­dogs sue US gov­ern­ment over Qatar’s bil­lions in uni­ver­si­ty funding

• Qatari involve­ment in US high­er education

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.