MAGA Influencers Take Heat Over Qatar Junket
“Wow, America’s like really third world compared to these places.”
Emily Saves Qatar
WHILE MOST AMERICANS SPENT THANKSGIVING at home with turkey and cranberry sauce, three prominent right-wing influencers opted for a more rarefied holiday destination: the nation of Qatar.
The Gulf Arab monarchy is on a clear campaign to charm Donald Trump and those around him, starting with the “gift” of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet (supposedly to the Air Force, not Trump) in May, and extending to the building of new facilities at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho (which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth inaccurately reported as a Qatari military base). The latest Qatari charm tactic has less to do with aviation than with recreation for some B-list MAGA social media personalities.
In social media posts, prominent right-wing influencers Emily Wilson (better known as “Emily Saves America”), Caitlin Sinclair, and Rob Smith documented their visits to luxe Doha restaurants, a nightclub, the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix, and even an audience with Serena Williams. They posted videos of themselves walking the red carpet at the Formula 1 “Paddock Club,” where tickets can run into the mid-four figures.
And of course, there were meetings with Qatari officials to discuss what Smith robotically called “mutually beneficial military and financial partnerships” with the United States.
While it’s not clear who paid for their trip, the assumption that some Qatari group was behind their good times and Smith’s new pro-Qatar stance has roiled the right, with one Newsmax contributor calling it proof of a “hostile subversion campaign.”
Hardcore Israel supporter Laura Loomer has been on a days-long meltdown over the trip, at one point declaring that she’d rather eat canned tuna and beans in her apartment than sell out to the Qatar lobby in such a way. The influencers, by comparison, appear to have dined at Cipriani Doha, a place so fancy its online menu doesn’t even have prices.
Wilson shot back, claiming, falsely, that Loomer has been divorced twice.
While the right’s feuding is certainly funny, the fight over the Qatar trip points to something larger. As Qatar and Israel increasingly grapple with one another for the loyalty of Republican personalities, even the most ridiculous MAGA influencers appear to be worth fighting over—and splashing out on.
Most of the heat has focused on Wilson, whom False Flag readers may remember as one part of the vicious influencer engagement ring drama earlier this year or for her stance that slavery should be legal on a state-by-state basis.
That’s because, until now, Wilson has been solidly in Israel’s camp, even saying she wants to convert to Judaism for her Jewish boyfriend.
Wilson has also made the rounds of the pro-Israel influencer circuit. In August, she was criticized by anti-Israel activists for taking an influencer trip to Israel. Shortly before that trip, she attended the pro-Israel conference in the Hamptons organized by billionaire Bill Ackman and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, which was heavily scrutinized by conspiracy theorists after Kirk’s murder a few weeks later.
Now her loyalties are in doubt. “Does Qatar pay better than Israel?” conservative satirist Seth Dillon asked in an apparent jab at Wilson’s shifting allegiances.
“Guess Israel needs a non-compete clause!” cracked former InfoWars host Owen Shroyer.
Defending herself, Wilson responded essentially that she likes Formula 1 and it was cool to go to Qatar. When a pro-Israel conservative pundit suggested she should instead take a trip to Israel for charity work, Wilson fumed that “not all of us come from rich Jewish families.”
Making her situation worse, Wilson used her trip to run down her comparatively clout-less homeland, the United States. “Honestly it was amazing to finally feel safe and not be surrounded by homeless crackheads and criminals for once,” she wrote. “I could actually relax and enjoy myself.” On her podcast, she praised Qatar for having “no black people on EBT going to Walmart to get fat” and “definitely no gay dudes rollerblading.”
“Wow, America’s like really third world compared to these places,” Wilson said.
But Wilson was hardly alone. Loomer criticized Smith, who is openly gay, for visiting a country where homosexual acts are outlawed.1 If not for his influencer status, Loomer argued, Smith would have been beheaded in Qatar for being gay.2
In response, Smith accused her of “trying to get me killed” by pointing out online that he’s gay.
NOT EVERYONE WAS SO EAGER to visit Doha. MAGA influencer Xavier DuRousseau, who attended Wilson’s summer junket to Israel, said that he was also invited to Qatar. DuRousseau described the Qatar trip as aimed at MAGA influencers who were already seen as supportive of Israel.
“They wanted me to go to prove that ‘you can be a Zionist AND Pro-Qatar,’ then assured me that I could ask ALL my questions because they knew I was skeptical,” DuRousseau said.
But when DuRousseau raised questions about Qatari influence in the United States with the trip’s sponsor, he said he was uninvited.
The influencers faced another conundrum: how to square their new Qatari patronage with the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States. They managed to square this circle by making a distinction between the wealthy Qatari Muslims who allegedly paid for their trip (good) and Muslims in Western countries who did not pay for their trip (bad).
“All the Muslims there are extremely smart, successful, and productive,” Wilson said of Qatari Muslims on her podcast. “The ones [in the United States] and in the U.K. are the ones they don’t fucking tolerate in their country, and they kick out—that’s why they suck and they’re pieces of shit.”
Coincidentally, Smith too found the Muslims he encountered in high-end Doha restaurants and nightclubs to be a cut above, writing that he was “encountering an Islamic population that is QUITE different from the far-Left radicals we’re dealing with in the United States of America.”
THESE KINDS OF DEALS are becoming so common on the right, this isn’t even the only such scandal to break out over Thanksgiving. As Smith and Wilson packed their bags for Qatar, a host of far-right figures like Stew Peters and former MMA fighter Jake Shields faced backlash after posting what appeared to be unidentified sponsored posts for gambling site “BiggerZ.” Collectively, they all couched the advertisements as a story about a Las Vegas Raiders fan betting against his team—though the vocally antisemitic Peters made sure to include a jab at Raiders owner Mark Davis for “counting shekels.”
“$3,000 bet turned into $23,000?” asked Elijah Schaffer, the far-right pundit currently being sued by FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend, in his own post advertising the gambling site. “DANG.”
Neo-Nazi Lucas Gage, who has a history of being disappointed when his fellow racists act in duplicitous ways, moaned that the gambling promoters were “fake ass fucking Christians.”3
As for Wilson, she appeared to offer a sort of list of potential junkets she’s interested in on her podcast, saying she’d also like to visit Japan and Russia. As someone once said, “Russia, if you’re listening. . .”
Presumably Wilson warned Smith against rollerblading before the trip.
The punctuation is important.
Will is like Andy Dufrene - swims through rivers of you-know-what everyday and comes out clean on the other side! Bless you, sir, for this incredible public service! 😄
So, a bunch of 20-somethings who couldn't do any job that involves real work follow their god-king and make oodles of money for showing gullible young people what fools they are for actually doing something productive with their lives. No wonder we're so f*ed up! The complaints by Loomer are funny - she does the exact same thing.