Opinion | Democrats have a rare opening as Trump backs a foreign base on U.S. soil

Qatar’s ruling family may have just found out how much influence a run-down Boeing 747 buys you in Donald Trump’s America.

In a scenario that would have dominated the headlines in any other administration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week that Qatar’s Air Force would be moving into a plush new “military facility” at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. Yes, the same Qatar that Trump once accused of funding global terrorism. What a difference an airplane makes!

The president’s new love affair with Qatar is flying under the radar, it seems, thanks to a constant stream of fresh political scandals closer to home. But this new coziness with Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is causing turbulence with everyone from top military brass to Trump’s closest Capitol Hill allies. If Democrats want voters to treat this like the national security crisis it is, they’ll need to get a lot more comfortable explaining why Qatar isn’t our friend.

The Qatari government apparently knows that when it comes to Trump’s ego, the sky is the limit. When the regime offered the White House a “free” Boeing superluxury jumbo jet (estimated value $400 million), Trump was quick to accept it as a show of respect, even though doing so put American taxpayers on the hook for nearly $1 billion in repairs and security refits. As Trump said at the time, only “a stupid person” would turn down a free airplane. But even setting aside the exorbitant taxpayer-funded upgrade costs, Qatar’s 747-800 now looks anything but free.

Last month, Trump issued the executive order “Assuring the Security of the State of Qatar,” but the sweeping declaration did far more than deepen America’s defense relationship with the emirate. Trump’s order guaranteed Qatar’s security, putting the country on par with our NATO allies and ultimately snatching away Congress’ constitutional authority to approve treaties and security agreements.

As Gary J. Schmitt of the conservative American Enterprise Institute pointed out last week, security guarantees of this scope normally require a two-thirds vote of the Senate. That’s because security guarantees are massive agreements that require the United States to use every diplomatic, economic and military tool to protect Qatar from enemy attack. In the past, Congress has demanded its right to confirm these far-reaching deals. Instead, Trump rubber-stamped the deal himself before Congress was even aware of what was happening. With its Boeing diplomacy, Qatar managed to secure seemingly unlimited American security for effectively nothing.

If Trump’s decision to offer Qatar an open-ended security guarantee got MAGA Republicans grumbling, his decision this week to grant the Qatari air force its own military base in Idaho sent them into a frenzy.

Hegseth’s announcement that Qatar would become the first foreign nation with a military basing presence in the United States led MAGA leaders, including presidential adviser Laura Loomer, to declare that she had “never felt more betrayed by the GOP.” Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon accused Trump of despoiling the “sacred soil of America” with foreign troops. Instead of pursuing an America First agenda, many MAGA loyalists griped, Trump and Hegseth were now effectively chauffeuring Qatari pilots around a highly classified air base.

Even more baffling was the fact that Trump apparently asked for nothing from the Qataris in return for this historic display of generosity and access to some of the American military’s most sensitive combat equipment. Although, perhaps the Qataris did give Trump something in return: Back in April, a Trump-owned company quietly struck a deal to open a vast golf resort in Qatar. The president’s son Eric even attended the signing ceremony in person — and sent along Trump’s best wishes for a successful partnership. What a successful partnership it has turned out to be for the Qatari government.

America’s military leaders seem less thrilled with Trump’s easy willingness to repay Qatar’s gifts with lofty promises of mutual defense and economic support. So are his closest allies. Earlier this year Capitol Hill Republicans raised concerns about the ethical and security problems incurred by Trump’s acceptance of the Qatari jet. Members of the national security community also fretted that Trump’s expansive commitment to defend Qatar created serious confusion over both how those commitments would be enforced and whether Trump had the authority to make them in the first place. In short, Trump has created a policy nightmare for the few non-MAGA officials still tasked with overseeing America’s national security.

Trump’s willingness to use the military as a political weapon has been devastating for morale at every level of service, to the point that soldiers who once ignored Democratic messaging are grudgingly beginning to pay attention. Trump’s recent rash of deals with Qatar has only further persuaded some troops that Trump and Hegseth are more interested in cutting their own deals than in making the best decisions for the nation and the fighting men and women who protect it.

Democrats now have a unique opportunity to share their concerns with a voter demographic that has been out of their reach for much of the past two decades: veterans and troops. Our troops know when their government is cutting deals that sell short our national security in favor of short-term dealmaking. That has never been as blatant or as self-serving as Trump’s sketchy deals — but unless Democrats can make that connection clear to voters, most will be too busy following a dozen other breaking news stories to do their own deep-dive research.

They should take the opportunity seriously by bringing the party’s veterans to the forefront and yielding the microphone to their expertise. Showing our troops that Democrats can be trusted to put a check on self-dealing like Trump’s Qatar misadventures isn’t just good midterm politicking, it’s responsible stewardship of our national security.

Trump and Hegseth have overstepped their legal authority and military common sense in pursuit of praise and profits from foreign nations. Democrats must remind our troops that one party in this country still cares about making decisions that put our collective safety and military readiness first. That means vowing to undo Trump’s sketchy deals with Qatar on Day 1 of the new congressional term — and ensuring Hegseth’s runaway Pentagon finally has proper oversight under a Democratic Congress.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com