A Foreign Military Facility in Idaho? Idahoans Should Pay Attention!
Something significant is happening in our own backyard and most Idahoans weren’t even asked. A Qatar-funded military facility is being built at Mountain Home Air Force Base, about 50 miles southeast of Boise. This project is being presented as a simple training partnership, but the reality is far more serious and deserves honest conversation.
Qatar is paying for the construction and long-term maintenance of the training facility as part of a ten-year agreement with the U.S. military. The base will house twelve Qatar F-15 fighter jets and around 300 Qatar military personnel. Local companies will handle the construction, but control of the base will remain with the U.S. Air Force.
This all stems from Qatar’s 2017 purchase of 36 U.S. fighter jets and growing military cooperation between the two nations. What hasn’t been part of the story is public input. Idahoans weren’t consulted. We weren’t given a choice.
Partnering with Qatar is not like partnering with Canada or Norway. There are extreme fundamental differences in ideology, culture, governance and behavior between Middle Eastern Islamic nations that support Hamas and the United States.
This isn’t just about building a few hangars or training pilots. It’s about allowing a foreign government with a deeply controversial record to operate within our state. Qatar is not just any foreign partner. It has a long history of ties to organizations such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Just before the October 7th attack on Israel, Qatar gave $30 million to Hamas. The country also spends billions influencing U.S. universities and media, shaping public opinion and politics. This is not a neutral relationship and whoever thinks it is, is short sighted or willing to sell the US out.
Beyond the geopolitical concerns, there are practical local impacts. Mountain Home is already short on housing for American personnel, and adding hundreds more foreign personnel will only increase the strain. And there is a big difference between western and middle eastern culture.
In September, 2025, an executive order was signed stating that an attack on Qatar would be treated as an attack on the United States. Meanwhile, Idahoans who have strongly supported President Trump in the last 3 elections, have spent years asking Washington DC to focus on our communities, our economy, and our infrastructure. Instead, we are getting Qatar fighter pilots training in Idaho. A pretty weak rally cry for “Make America Great Again” and not much of a deal for Idaho.
To me, this doesn’t look like “America First.” It looks like global politics being dropped into a conservative state that values its independence and security. Idaho has always stood strong for local control and state sovereignty. Allowing foreign governments tied to terror funding to operate inside our borders weakens that sovereignty and sets a dangerous precedent for the future.
This is not about being against middle eastern peace. It’s about protecting our traditional American values, our heritage, our communities, our state and our country. It’s about making sure that American safety comes before foreign interests. Qatar funds terror, influences our institutions, and seeks political leverage in the United States. They should not be building military infrastructure in Idaho or anywhere else within our US borders.
While President Trump deserves credit for trying to balance an incredibly difficult situation in the Middle East, these global involvements create consequences here at home. Every intervention abroad comes with costs on the domestic front. America simply cannot operate as a global empire without paying the price, and it seems like Idaho will be paying it.
Idaho belongs to Idahoans NOT foreign governments. If we don’t speak up now, we may not get another chance. I encourage every Idahoan who values security, sovereignty, and transparency to stay informed and make your voice heard.
Rep. Heather Scott
Idaho House of Representatives
District 2A
Heather, it is time to pass the "NO Shariah Law in Idaho" bill I got through the House in 2018: but got stalled in the Senate.
Eric Redman
As an Idahoan, I find it deeply troubling that something of this magnitude — the construction of a Qatar-funded military facility on our soil — was announced with virtually no public transparency or state-level input. That’s not just poor form; it undermines the entire idea of federalism and local accountability.
I want to be clear: the assertion that Idaho citizens and state/local leadership were not meaningfully engaged appears to be 100% correct (based on my research). There were no public hearings that I could find. No community briefings that I could find. No invitation for feedback from the people who actually live here that I could find. And amazingly, from what I can tell, Governor Little’s office didn’t even know the announcement was coming. Neither did Senator Risch. Local officials in Mountain Home weren’t briefed in advance. We were all caught flat-footed. So yes I'd say “Idahoans weren’t asked.” Because we absolutely were not!
I’m not saying there’s zero justification for international training partnerships, but I am saying that dropping news like this out of the sky, fully baked and ready for launch, into a sovereign U.S. state is a complete disregard for the principle of local control. When something this significant is "in the works for years", as the Pentagon now claims (though I do not believe for a second) and yet nobody bothers to inform Idaho leadership? That’s not cooperation. That’s federal imposition through and through.
Representative Scott, I so very much agree with you raising the alarm. Whether folks agree with your every word or not, one thing is 100% clear: we should not be learning about this kind of deal from national press conferences. We deserve a seat at the table, especially when Idaho communities are expected to deal with the fallout.