Qatar’s Dangerous Playbook Is Targeting Our Classrooms and Our Kids
As Americans, we’ve always believed that our universities, classrooms, and media should be spaces of free inquiry, democratic ideals, and national pride. But what happens when a foreign government with a track record of supporting terror, extremism, and anti-American propaganda quietly pours billions of dollars into those very institutions?
In recent days, President Trump’s visit to Doha has brought renewed attention to the strategic partnership between the United States and Qatar. The Emir’s red-carpet treatment and record business deals made headlines, yet Americans should be asking an important question: at what cost?
Qatar is not just another Gulf state looking to buy American military equipment and sell us fossil fuels. Behind its polished exterior and diplomatic niceties is a regime that has mastered the art of soft power, deploying billions of dollars to reshape American opinion, policy, and even our children’s education. This is the sobering conclusion of multiple bipartisan investigations, as well as intelligence reports from our allies.
Qatar’s influence campaigns are sophisticated and subtle. They do not rely only on lobbyists or direct political donations. Instead, they target our society’s most impressionable demographics: universities, grade schools, and social media users. From sponsoring K-12 curricula with built-in political propaganda to flooding our most prestigious universities with over $6 billion in donations since 1986, Qatar has embedded itself deep within the institutions that shape American hearts and minds.
The numbers are staggering. In the last four years alone, Qatar and China combined have poured over $4 billion into American universities, with Qatar alone accounting for over $2 billion during that period. Institutions like Harvard, Cornell, and Georgetown have opened campuses in Doha’s “Education City,” effectively outsourcing American academic prestige to a regime that, according to Freedom House, ranks as one of the most unfree countries on Earth.
And it doesn’t stop at the college level. Qatar is now reaching into K-12 schools across America, partnering with programs like the “Choices” curriculum at Brown University to provide books, lesson plans, and teacher training that downplay Islamist extremism and present anti-Israel narratives to millions of American children.
Qatar’s leadership has been caught enabling and funding groups that wage war on America’s allies and interests. Even after October 7, when Hamas terrorists massacred over 1,200 people in Israel and took hundreds hostage, Qatar continues to serve as Hamas’s key financial patron, political host, and enabler. Intelligence reports confirm that Qatar’s billions in Gaza were never about humanitarian aid. They went straight into Hamas’s violent terror infrastructure.
And yet, Qatar postures as a peace broker. It plays all sides: hosting Hamas leaders in five-star hotels while facilitating hostage negotiations with Western officials. It’s a masterclass in duplicity, and it’s working. American policymakers - across administrations - have too often fallen for Qatar’s charm offensive, mistaking its wry smile for genuine partnership.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s record at home remains deeply troubling. It is an absolute monarchy with no meaningful elections. Political parties are banned. Women’s rights are severely restricted, with domestic violence and spousal rape not criminalized. Over 90 percent of the population are foreign workers, many trapped in slavery-like conditions despite cosmetic labor reforms that look better on paper than in practice. Migrant workers still report wage theft, passport confiscation, and squalid living conditions - abuses Qatar has been accused of masking behind flashy PR campaigns, including its hosting of the 2022 World Cup.
Qatar is also fueling Islamist extremism globally. It openly shelters Muslim Brotherhood leaders and was a leading sponsor of the Taliban before and after 9/11. It gives a platform to Hamas on its state-owned Al Jazeera network, and launders terror financing through its opaque banking system, often in defiance of U.S. sanctions. Even more alarming, Qatar’s longtime defense minister - now promoted to deputy prime minister - has publicly declared, “We are all Hamas,” and has called for strategies to “influence U.S. decision-makers.” This is not the language of an ally. This is the language of an adversary exploiting America’s openness.
Yet Qatar hides behind its hosting of Al Udeid Air Base, America’s largest military installation in the Middle East, as if the rent check it collects gives it carte blanche to undermine American values. We must be clear-eyed: being our landlord does not entitle Qatar to manipulate our politics, our education system, or our national conversation on the Middle East.
To its credit, the Trump administration is taking initial steps to address this threat. New executive orders mandating disclosure of foreign funding in U.S. higher education are an essential start. The investigations into university connections with malign actors like Qatar and China show that the White House understands the problem.
But more must be done. Congress should accelerate the passage of the Deterrent Act, which closes loopholes and increases penalties on foreign giving to universities, and ensure that it treats Qatar like the problematic actor it is. The U.S. must also demand clarity on Qatar’s funding of educational programs, think tanks, and nonprofits. We must expose and dismantle the shadow lobbying networks that enable Doha’s influence to seep, undetected, into our institutions.
Finally, while America should continue to work with Qatar where our interests overlap, we must remain vigilant that Qatar often acts in tandem with Iran as a sponsor of terror. Qatar is not a friend. It is a transactional actor.
President Trump’s instincts to protect American interests are right, but we must ensure those interests aren’t compromised by the corrosive influence of Qatar’s checkbook diplomacy. Qatar’s goals are clear: buy influence, shape narratives, and hide behind the mask of diplomacy. We can do business where it suits us. But let’s not pretend Qatar is our friend while they continue to bankroll Hamas terrorists. The despotic rulers of Qatarthinks they can buy America. They are wrong. We can respect their role as partners in certain arenas while fiercely defending our sovereignty, our classrooms, and our values from their soft-power campaign.
Anything less would be a betrayal of our children, our values, and the American people.
