Hegseth blasted by Loomer, conservatives over Qatari air force facility in Idaho

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Friday announcement that the U.S. will host a new Qatari air force facility in Idaho has drawn the ire of the Trump administration’s closest allies, including Laura Loomer, who said she felt “betrayed” over the matter.

In a flurry of social media posts Friday afternoon, Loomer unleashed on the administration’s announcement that it had signed the letter greenlighting the building of a Qatar Emiri air force contingent at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwestern Idaho. The air arm of Qatar’s armed forces, Qatar Emiri air force pilots would train to fly F-15s in the U.S. 

“There isn’t a single Trump supporter who supports allowing Qatar to have a military base on US soil,” Loomer posted to the social platform X. “I don’t know who told President Trump this was a good idea, but it has made people not want to vote.”

She also wrote that "no foreign country should have a military base on US soil. Especially Islamic countries.”

In another post about Hegseth, she admonished him as he “should know how bad of an idea it is to allow Terror financing Qataris who fund HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood to have an AIR FORCE BASE ON US SOIL.”

“I don’t think I’ll be voting in 2026” over the issue, she added.

Loomer, a staunch supporter of Trump, has made no secret of her disdain for Qatar and other countries with a majority Muslim population. Earlier this year, she called out Trump over his acceptance of a luxury Boeing jet from the Qatari government.

“I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him,” Loomer wrote on X at the time. “But, I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits.”

But the Trump administration's relationship with Qatar continues to grow. Earlier this month, the commander in chief penned an executive order to increase U.S. protection of Qatar following an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha that killed six people, including a Qatari security officer.

For Friday’s announcement, Hegseth sat alongside Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Qatari defense minister who met him at the Pentagon.

Hegseth said the agreement showcases the strength of the partnership between Qatar and the U.S. and added that Doha’s officials played a key role in securing the Gaza peace deal. 

Mountain Home Air Force Base, located in Elmore County, already hosts Singapore’s air force F-15SG fighter jets.

Loomer is not the only MAGA Republican to express displeasure at the development.

Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist during Trump’s first term, told Newsweek there “should never be a military base of a foreign power on the sacred soil of America.”

And conservative commentator Amy Malek wrote on X that “Qatar has spent $100 billion buying influence in the U.S., and it’s paying off.”

“I am in shock that Washington would approve a deal letting Qatar, Hamas’s #1 financier, open a Qatari Air Force facility on U.S. soil,” she wrote. “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.”