NeverTrump’s new base of operations: Qatar?

Prominent NeverTrump publications are shuttering, while pseudo-conservative commentators are struggling to find funds from wealthy backers for their influence campaigns. With the reality setting in that domestic dollars are becoming harder and harder to find, it appears that the NeverTrump movement may be pivoting overseas.

“GOP media guy” Rick Wilson, who has made a name for himself on liberal networks as a Trump-obsessed media pundit, attended the Doha Forum in Qatar this weekend alongside other establishment Republican voices and a delegation of congressional Democrats. 

Wilson had nothing but great things to say about the annual Qatari conference, which was populated by a who’s who of extremist voices and representatives from terrorist states.

In several tweets, Wilson sang the praises of Qatar. Nowhere did he mention the nation’s overt support for several terrorist groups, its siding with America’s enemies, and its use of slave labor to run the domestic economy.

Since returning to the United States, Wilson has thus far refused to answer questions from conservative writers and pundits about who paid for his trip and whether anything was expected of him.

Also on hand at the Doha Forum was former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who, like Wilson, regularly goes on liberal networks to act as the supposedly Republican voice who bashes the president.

Not everyone at the Doha forum is militantly opposed to the president, though. Other influential Republican operatives at the Doha Forum included former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former California GOP Chairman Ron Nehring. 

Qatar has made a concerted effort to recruit both anti-Trump and pro-Trump Republicans to help boost relations with the Right. After President Trump’s inauguration, Doha shelled out millions of dollars in an attempt to improve its image with people connected to the president. In doing so, Qatar sought to protect its extremist domestic and foreign policy status quo.

On Monday, Conservative Review reported on the clandestine weekend trip that six congressional Democrat representatives took to the Gulf nation. While in Doha, they met with the current emir of Qatar, who rules the country. 

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