Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz joins Department of Public Works Commissioner William Geary, departmental personnel and other elected officials to officially open a new highway barn in Lancaster. The new barn replaces a century-old, obsolete facility in Clarence that Public Works had used until now.
After years of advocating "America First," President Donald Trump's administration, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Friday, "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."
It led to a swift meltdown from some of the president's top allies.
Constitutionalist and MAGA influencer "The General" was furious, calling it outright "treason."
"We are in the middle of rolling out military across the entire USA and then bringing in a non-NATO country military into the USA is TREASON. U.S. and Qatar sign deal to open a Qatari 'air force facility,' in the U.S., at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho," he wrote on X.
"Is this what 'shared defense goals' means now — or just the latest way our politicians get paid to sell out our country?" asked Amy Mek, the editor-in-chief of RAIR, an organization that advocates for the U.S. to return to a country run by Judeo-Christian values. "Twenty-four years after foreign nationals trained in our flight schools flew planes into our buildings, our leaders are inviting their financiers to train inside our bases. This is what happens when you gut national-security training, scrub every mention of Islam, jihad, and Sharia from the manuals, and let Obama- and Biden-era bureaucrats turn counterterrorism into cultural sensitivity class. We’re being led by officials who no longer recognize or refuse to name the enemy they’re inviting into our own backyard.'
Close ally to President Trump, Laura Loomer, lamented the news after advocating that the administration declare the Muslim Brotherhood an international terrorist organization.
"Well, I guess this isn’t going to happen since we just gave the Muslim Brotherhood an air base in Idaho. So much for my decade worth of hard work trying to protect Americans from the threat of Islamic terror," said Loomer about the new base.
"No foreign country should have a military base on U.S. soil," she also said. "Especially Islamic countries. I have never felt more betrayed by the GOP than I do now watching Islamic jihadists get away with implementing Sharia law in the US and now they are getting their own airbase where they will train to kill Americans."
She went on to warn that it would make America less safe by setting up "for America to be attacked by Islamic savages from Qatar, the biggest funders of Islamic terror in the entire world. So much so, the Saudis and Emiratis find Qatar to be TOXIC. I need to see how much more of my life I am going to dedicate to a party that won’t address the threat of Islam in the West. The betrayal stings. WE ARE LOSING OUR COUNTRY!"
Content creator and influencer Red Eagle Politics denied the reporting.
"We aren’t giving Argentina a free $20 Billion handout, and we aren’t building an Air Force Base for Qatar in Idaho. The amount of dishonest lunacy on this app is reaching new heights," he wrote on X.
Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin, a Democrat, pointed out that Idaho Republicans "have been crowing about" legislation similar to that his state enacted "blocking foreign ownership of land in their state."
Dan Caldwell, former senior advisor to Hegseth, wrote on X that it wasn't that big of a deal.
"The freak out around this is of course totally unwarranted since this is actually a pretty common practice with countries that buy and operate a lot of U.S. military aircraft. Singapore has a similar facility and detachment for its F-15 training unit at this very same airbase," he said.
Caldwell is one of the DOD aides who was forced out amid Hegseth's Signalgate scandal. He has denied any wrongdoing.
U.S. Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) called for President Donald Trump and his senior administration officials to treat House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in the same manner they treated Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this year when they appeared to gang up on and berate the Ukrainian president.
Trump has not met with the Democratic leaders since he took office in January, and canceled a meeting with them slated for last week. They will be meeting in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon to discuss ways to avert a federal government shutdown at midnight on Tuesday.
Alford, a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, told NewsNation on Monday, “Let’s give them a little taste of what we gave Zelenskyy back in the spring.”
READ MORE: ‘Tone-Deaf’: Mass Shootings Rock U.S. as Trump Brags About Oval Office Gold
Trump has falsely claimed that Democrats are “threatening” to shut down the government “unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens.”
He, also wrongly, has claimed Democrats want to “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”
Alford echoed some of those allegations in his Monday remarks.
“So, this is what they wanted, all this crazy spending, going back to the woke policies and giving illegal aliens health care. Trump said, ‘There’s no way, why should I meet with them?'” Alford said.
“I think, over the last couple of days, he’s rethought that. Let’s bring them into the Oval Office. Let’s give them a little taste of what we gave Zelenskyy back in the spring,” the Missouri Republican declared.
READ MORE: ‘Genius All Around’: Pentagon Ordering 800 Officers to U.S. Mocked as Agenda Becomes Clear
“This is going to be live viewing, I believe, in the Oval Office,” Alford said, “like you’ve never seen before, maybe an hour-long meeting, and the American people can see for themselves the ridiculous request and demands as the Democrats hold them hostage.”
Jeffries on Monday told reporters, “We’re headed into the meeting [with Trump] to have a good faith negotiation about landing the plane in a way that avoids a government shutdown but does not continue the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people.”
Democrats are “using one of their few points of leverage to demand Congress take up legislation to extend health care benefits,” PBS News reported. “Trump has shown little interest in entertaining Democrats’ demands on health care, even as he agreed to hold a sit-down meeting Monday with Schumer, along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. The Republican president has said repeatedly he fully expects the government to enter a shutdown this week.”
READ MORE: Shutdown Meltdown: Trump Hits Democrats With ‘Transgender for Everybody’ Charge
