BREAKING: Trump & Hegseth issue BOMBSHELL announcement

I'm joined now by national security. expert, deputy to the US ambassador to. the UN, and spokesperson for the State. Department under President Obama, Ned. Price. Ned, thank you so much for. joining me. >> Ryan, thanks for having me. >> So, I'm going to throw to a clip of what. we just heard from Pete Hagsth today. about a brand new announcement about the. Qataris building a military base on US. soil. Um, no one other than President. Trump could have achieved uh the peace. that what we believe will be a lasting. peace uh in Gaza and Qar played a. substantial role from the beginning. working with our folks to ensure that.

came about. So, I want to thank you for. that historic piece. We look forward to. joining the president uh as that gets uh. it's already been delivered but as. that's formally signed as well. And I'm. also proud that today we're announcing. or we're signing a letter of acceptance. to build a Qatari emiri air force. facility at the Mountain Home air base. in Idaho. The lo location will be uh. host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and. pilots to enhance our combined training,

increase lethality, interoperability. It's just another example uh of our. partnership and I hope hope you know. your excellency that you can count on. us. So Ned, first and foremost, given. the fact that we will see the Qataris. build a military base on US soil, according to Pete Hexath's announcement. and Donald Trump's assumed agreement. with with the Qataris, can you speak. about the national security implications. for Americans? >> Well, look, of course, whenever you have. a foreign military operating in the. United States, uh, and worse yet, in.

close proximity to US military assets, as would be the case here, um, there's. going to be a risk. There's going to be. a physical security risk. there's going. to be a counter intelligence um risk as. well. And so it's far from clear to me. given that this was rolled out without. much ceremony today, without seeming. much preparation by the Secretary of. Defense, without much explanation added. to it, that this administration has. thought through any of that. And if we. need to train, if we need to um work. with the cutteries on an interoperable.

basis, we have an air base in Qatar. We. have US military assets in Qatar where. by the way Qatar military assets uh sit. permanently. So if these two elements. need to work together day in day out it. would seem natural to do that in cutter. much much less natural to do that in. Idaho with the attendant risk that. you've just alluded to. >> N can you speak a little bit about. whether or not this is an unprecedented. move to have a foreign country have a. military installation on US soil given.

the fact that this is not a NATO ally? Well, Brian, it's unprecedented in the. sense that this is not a NATO ally. Um, this is a country with whom we share. some interest but also have some. disagreements. Countries like Germany, uh, other NATO allies have a military. presence on US soil. Um, but those are. countries with whom we work together. every single day. Uh, where there are. mutual defense treaties, treaties. ratified by, uh, the US Senate. These. are relationships that extend back uh.

decades. Uh in the case of a country. like Qatar, my understanding is that. this would be uh unprecedented. Yes. So. in terms of the other countries that we. work with, whether they have facilities. on on our soil or we have facilities on. their soil, it's because there's some. some shared interest in doing so. Whether they're allies, whether whether. we can, you know, garner some some. benefit by being, you know, strategically positioned somewhere in. the world. Is there any benefit that the. US would derive by virtue of allowing.

the Qataris to build a facility on US. soil? Like this is not a big country. It's not a country that offers the. United States any security guarantees. And so what would the benefit from the. US's perspective be of allowing the. Qataris to have the all the protections. that come with with having a facility on. mainland US soil? If the United States. and uh armed forces and cuttery armed. forces wanted to work together, uh we. could do so uh in Qatar uh in a location. that would be much more convenient for.

uh our cuttery partners. Uh the idea. that cuttery airplanes, cuttery assets. would need to come to Idaho of all. places to allow our forces to train. together and to work together, it's. belied by the fact that we do that every. single day at Aluade Air Base uh in. Cutter. And so to your question, does it. benefit US policy, US national security? It's hard to see how that would have an. added uh an additive benefit, but I will. say this, and this this wasn't your. question, but this is the real point.

Um, it certainly does advantage someone. Uh, I'm not sure that it's the United. States. Uh, and I say that because the. cutteries have gone out of their way, uh, to curry favor with President Trump, with his family, with his orbit. the. fact that uh Trump corporations are. building a golf course uh in Qatar. Uh. Jared Kushner, President Trump's. son-in-law and sometimes Middle East. negotiator uh is in a multiund million. dollar deal uh with several Gulf.

governments, including the government of. Qatar. Uh Steve Witoff and his family. company are deeply in bed with the. cutteries in terms of their business. interests. a number of officials in the. Trump uh cabinet uh and broader. government to include the attorney. general and the FBI director lobbied on. behalf of the state ofQatar. And so I. say that uh to emphasize that the. cutteries have really gone out of their. way to bring this administration into. its orbit. But I left off two important. things uh probably the two most.

important things. Uh in the spring, Cutter offered Trump uh so-called Air. Force One, this $400 million uh 747, which they called a gift. Um and you. know, look, I learned this lesson in. fifth grade uh from my science teacher. of all people. There's no such thing as. a free lunch. Uh there is no such thing. as a free Air Force One. And the. question was always, what is Cutter. going to get in return for this? So, is. this a situation where basically Donald. Trump is trading personal benefits for.

national favors? I mean, for for the. Qataris, I mean, in this situation, the. only person on the US's side who deres. any benefit is Donald Trump himself for. an airplane that he was gifted and his. corporation for buildings that they can. build uh in Qatar. And in exchange for. that, they get all the benefits of. taxpayer funded protections for the. Qataris who are going to have a military. base on US soil. >> Well, look, it's hard to see a national. security rationale for this. And Pete.

Hegsath nor other administration. officials over the course of the day. today have articulated that case in any. detail, at least uh not from what I've. seen. So, uh I want to be as charitable. as I can be. Uh perhaps there's a. national security case. We haven't heard. it. It's hard to think of one. And. here's the thing, Brian. With this. administration that is so transactional, and especially when they deal with. interlocutors that are so transactional, like the cutteries, it is very difficult. sometimes to disentangle what is actual.

good policy um from what is pure. corruption. And um we may be seeing in. some ways good policy here. I I uh. certainly haven't seen an argument uh. that substantiates that. Um but uh. unless and until we do, it sure looks. like uh pure corruption. Uh and Brian, I. think in the same conversation, we need. to add the fact that yes, they're. getting this military installation, these assets in the United States, but. it also comes on the heels of something.

else the Trump administration did. They. rolled out an executive order that. essentially guarantees that the United. States will come to the defense of Qatar. if cutter comes under armed attack from. a third party. Now, of course, the. United States has these agreements uh. with other countries in the form of. treaties. These are documents that are. ratified by the US Senate uh that are. receive the advice and consent of the US. Senate um in the form of the NATO. treaty. This was done by executive fiat.

The president signed his name on a piece. of paper and essentially committed the. United States of America indefinitely. until this was withdrawn to come to the. defense of uh the cuttery government. That too, Brian, is pretty. extraordinary. And so does that just. basically mean that in the event that. that Qatara would be attacked that Trump. would commit US troops or American lives. uh to be lost in in defense of a foreign. country that isn't even part of NATO? Qatar. >> it commits the United States to standing.

with Qatar and to helping uh with their. defense. how that actually plays out. It. doesn't actually stipulate, but it. certainly leaves the door open uh that. if there is an armed attack against. Qatar, the United States will send. military assets to defend them. And. Brian, the irony of all this is that uh. there was a recent armed attack on Qatar. uh and it was by the Israeli government. Uh so is the Trump administration now. saying that uh if the government of. Israel once again goes after Hamas. targets or other potential targets in.

Qatar that the United States is going to. send its assets to Qatar um to protect. against Israeli attacks or to in some. ways retaliate against um an Israeli. attack against Qatar. This just leads us. down a very strange, very windy road and. a road that we need not be on because. none of this is in the best national. interest of the United States, even if. it is in the best personal interest of. Donald Trump. >> Are they a trustworthy ally? I mean, I. know that we have we have our our. long-standing alliances with other NATO.

countries. It feels like they are a new. ally in that they are very intertwined. with Donald Trump's personal finances. and his personal business. But would you. would you look at at atqatar for example. and and feel confident in saying that. not only are they a firm enough ally but. one to have a military installation. right here on on US soil? >> Well look the the the cutteries are an. important partner and we've worked. together with Qatar on a number of. things um from uh bringing uh the. conflict between Israel Hamas to a close.

to Afghanistan and to other issues. closer to home uh in the Middle East. But um it is never the case that our. interests are perfectly aligned with any. other country. And that's certainly the. case with Qatar. Uh they have a very. different relationship uh with the. Taliban uh than we do. They have a very. different relationship with Hamas than. we do. They have a very different. relationship with Iran than we do. And. the reason we've often used Qatar for. these challenges and more is because. Qatar is sort of seen as a middleman. uh.

one of these countries that can talk to. people we wouldn't talk to like Hamas in. some instances like Iran, like the. Taliban. Uh Qatar is able to sort of uh. straddle both of these worlds. Now I. think that speaks to the fact that uh we. occupy very different places um in the. uh in the broader geopolitical context. It's good for some of our interests, but. uh it runs up against some of our. interests in other places. And so that's. why this strange arrangement is in fact.

uh so strange. >> Can you speak about from a broader. perspective this idea that Trump. predicated so much of his campaign on. presiding as an America first president. imposing the America first agenda? And. in the last few months we have seen. Trump offer up a $20 billion bailout to. Argentina which is the same country. that's usurping all of these soybean. sales uh from from China. It's no longer. it's no longer American farmers who are. selling soybeans to China. Now it's. Argentina. And so basically Trump is.

rewarding the very country that's taking. business away from American farmers. because he's a fan of their president. who showed up at CPAC and gave Elon Musk. a a chainsaw. And now we have a. situation where the US deres no benefit, but Donald Trump personally derives all. these benefits uh from from Qatar. And. he's been gifted a plane and he's able. to build his properties on their soil. And in response to that, they get all. the protections of having a military. base on American soil. And so just this. idea that what he promised was America. first when in reality he's delivering.

anything but. And Brian, I think there. are a number of other examples you can. cite uh that speak to that, including uh. the provision of uh of advanced micro. electronics um to China uh the provision. of advanced uh chips uh to the UAE uh in. an arrangement that ultimately came to. benefit others in the Trump orbit, including uh the Witoff family and what. just reeks of corruption. This has been. an absolute throughine through President. Trump's first two terms, including in.

his second term. uh so far if you were. in go back to the first Trump term if. you remember what his first impeachment. was all about it was about putting. President Trump's own in this case. political interests ahead of our. national security interests where uh he. tried to extort President Zalinsky for. what he called dirt uh on Joe Biden on. Hunter Biden looking ahead to the 2020. uh election. This has always been about. Trump saying that his frame, his. mentality is America first. But in every.

single case that we've seen, it's been. Trump first. Whether it's been his. political interests, whether it's been. his own financial uh interests, whether. it's been uh the interests of his family. and those in his orbit. Um, this is a. president who time and again has. seemingly sold out the better interests. of the American people uh when his own. narrow uh interest came into conflict. with them. >> And finally, Ned, I have to ask this. Can you talk about the legality of this.

move more broadly? Does Trump have the. unilateral authority to be able to do. this? Is this something that normally. Congress would weigh in on? Kind of. where do we stand on on that on that. element of things? Well, on these. broader elements, Congress would. absolutely weigh in when you take into. account the executive order the Trump. administration put forward a couple. weeks ago that commits the United States. to coming to the defense of Qatar in the. event of an armed attack. Um, that. should be a treaty, a mutual defense, a. defense treaty. In this case, it's not. exactly mutual because uh it's just the.

United States committing to protect. Qatar and not the other way around. Um, but in any case, that is the kind of. thing that the Senate uh in other cases. absolutely should uh and would have. weighed in on. But President Trump. signed this uh into an executive order. with nothing other than uh the pen and. his authority as president. when it. comes to uh allowing the cutteries uh to. bring some of their military assets to. the United States to uh to um coexist.

with US forces on this base in Idaho. That is something uh that the president. uh by all intents and purposes probably. does have the authority to do. But it's. also the kind of thing where Congress. has uh the right and actually the. responsibility and obligation uh to. conduct oversight and to ask the tough. questions. Why are we doing this? What. is the purpose of this? Um why is this. kind of arrangement needed in Idaho as. to some as opposed to something we can. do at Aludade air base um in Qatar? uh.

if we had uh a Congress that uh was. fulfilling its obligations to the. American people, the obligations uh that. they are entrusted to conduct uh as a. co-equal branch of government, they. would be doing precisely that. But. Republicans in Congress at every single. turn have abdicated their obligations. and responsibility and I suspect here. too they are going to give President. Trump and his administration a free. pass. >> Perfectly put. We'll leave it there. Ned. Price, as always, thanks for the time.

and for the expertise. Thanks, Brian. I. appreciate it.