Qatar gave Trump a big beautiful airplane. Now he’s thanking them:
The White House published an executive order on Wednesday vowing to defend Qatar in the event of an attack from another country, a remarkable security guarantee for a single country akin to NATO’s Article V.
The order, which President Donald Trump signed Monday, states that the White House will now consider “any armed attack” on Qatar “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
And, in the event of any attack, the U.S. would take “all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and the State of Qatar.”
Trump signed the executive order on the same day that he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and orchestrated a phone call with the Qatari prime minister during which Israel’s leader apologized for missile strikes last month targeting Hamas officials while they were in Doha for ceasefire talks. The attack killed a Qatari security officer. The president, shortly after the attack, promised the Qataris it would not happen again.
The unilateral creation of any Article V-like security guarantees by a president — under the Constitution, treaties must be ratified by the Senate— is highly unusual, especially for a president who espouses an “America First” foreign policy and has questioned longstanding U.S. commitments to NATO and the central pillar of its charter that similarly deems an attack on any member country as an attack on the entire alliance.
Well, at least Qatar isn’t in a volatile region where someone could make a mistake or decide to up the ante. I’m sure it won’t be a problem.
Meanwhile, NATO is left hanging in the wind wondering if Trump will whine about “dues” and refuse to honor Article 5. You just never know with him.
I wonder if anyone will challenge the idea that the president is now unilaterally declaring such security guarantees without even getting input from Congress much less getting ratification. Eh… why bother? This will only become an issue if a Democratic president decides to try it.