Vice President JD Vance touched on something real in his three-hour sit-down with Joe Rogan: The United States has a problem with foreign governments trying to influence our government to make decisions in their own best interests rather than ours. The country the vice president picked to illustrate his point was Israel, our ally in an ongoing war with Iran and the only functioning democracy in the Middle East. It was an odd example, given the tiny amount Israel expends on lobbying in the U.S. A far more obvious example would be Qatar, which has used its vast oil wealth to massively affect U.S. politics, culture, and education. And as an Islamic monarchy that hosts the Hamas terror organization and the anti-American Al Jazeera network, one would think its influence at any scale would provoke more alarm.
Qatar is a small Gulf emirate with a population of roughly 3 million people, of whom 90% are expats and often abused or exploited migrant workers. The number of actual Qatari citizens is only a few hundred thousand. Yet this tiny country maintains one of the most active foreign diplomatic and financial footprints in the United States. This includes a new pledge of a $1.2 trillion “economic exchange” on top of the $400 billion already invested in American real estate, private equity, universities, and lobbying.
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