Follow The Money: Who’s Bankrolling America’s Colleges?

Qatar, the Gulf state known for funding the Muslim Brotherhood and logging the most in-person meetings between its agents and political contacts in the United States of any country, is also the largest foreign funder of U.S. campuses.

In a July letter to university boards, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers announced “long-overdue” disclosures revealing the prevalence of foreign funding in leading American research institutions (R1), and specifically highlighted funding from “countries of concern,” a legal term covering China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

“Between July 31, 2025, and January 31, 2026, Section 117 disclosures reveal $8,632,306,485.30 in foreign gifts and contracts to all 187 R1 institutions. Of that amount, $997,646,582.01 was disclosed as originating from “countries of concern” as defined by 42 U.S.C. § 19221(a)(1), including China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran.”

While Qatar is not technically a country of concern and enjoys status as a major non-NATO ally, Congress is growing wary of Qatar’s influence in American academia.

It has particularly come into focus since the post-October 7 anti-Israel campus encampment protests, which regularly featured terrorist-sympathizing imagery and themes. Some of the student groups connected to the protests share links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which sits at the foundation of Qatar’s Islamist government.

In contrast to the nearly $1 billion of collective funding by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, Qatar gives $1 billion to Texas A&M alone, $1.1 billion to Georgetown, $2 billion to Carnegie Mellon, and $3.4 billion to Cornell. Qatar also gives nearly $820 million to Northwestern and nearly $450 million to Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Qatar Foundation (QF), a Qatari state-run non-profit institution, provided the vast majority of Qatar’s contributions to these universities, and has publicly maintained these funds go to satellite campuses located in Qatar. It also claimed the government could not influence the hiring, curriculum, or other decisions on these campuses.

Recent Congressional investigations uncovered that the Qatari government had substantial control over these universities. The investigation found that “the Qatar Foundation has sought to influence messaging by U.S. satellite campuses in Doha,” and that the satellite campus programs with their American counterparts influence American schools. One acute example highlighted in the report focuses on Georgetown’s foreign service school in Qatar (GU-Q). The report says “GU-Q advises visitors to ‘speak respectfully about the Emir, the ruling family, and the government system.’ GU-Q also advises visitors that ‘[c]riticizing religions, prophets, or holy books is sensitive’ and urges them to refrain from ‘[p]ublicizing crises happening inside Qatar’ or ‘spreading rumors on social media, even if they’re true.'”

The Qatar Foundation also demanded that “any communications received, or proposed to be sent to Government entities must go through [QF] first for advice.”

Lawmakers also uncovered private agreements between Northwestern’s Qatar campus and Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-funded news outlet. In a congressional hearing, the then-president of Northwestern said he had only become aware of the agreement a week prior to the hearing and was “concerned” by the relationship.

“QF has a role in approving the introduction of new degree programs, including approval of the associated business plans, while VCU retains academic authority,” Virginia Commonwealth University, which operates a Doha campus, told The Daily Wire. “QF is also consulted on certain senior leadership appointments, including the dean and associate deans, as indicated in the agreement.”

The university also acknowledged the American and Qatari campuses “also collaborate on academic, research, and creative initiatives.”

In a statement to The Daily Wire, the State Department acknowledged that Qatar was among the leading donors in the late reports, but would not say if it took the top spot.

It is also not clear where the State Department’s figures come from. According to the Department of Education’s disclosure spreadsheets, between July 31, 2025 and January 31, 2026, Section 117 reporting uncovered approximately $4.6-5.1 billion in R1 funding, of which $1.18 billion came from Qatar, whereas countries of concern supplied $328 million, not the $997.6 million figure cited in Rogers’ letter.

If the department derived its figures from the reporting period February 1, 2025 to January 1, 2026, then the $8.6 billion in total foreign funding with $997 million from “countries of concern” is more plausible with the Department of Education’s numbers. Even in that scenario, Qatar would still be the leading funder of American universities at $1.24 billion. Moreover, the countries of concern figures do not match.

An independent analysis by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, could also not corroborate the administration’s figures.

“The $8.63 billion figure represents disclosures filed between July 31, 2025 and January 31, 2026 and may include earlier transactions or late filings,” a State Department spokesperson told The Daily Wire when asked about these discrepancies.

Qatari influence is not a secret in Washington, but its discussion is tightly controlled.

The Qatari influence network spans well past the Qatar Foundation.

Update: RFK Jr. just deleted the post.
Qatar clearly made some angry phone calls https://t.co/kvKINEBB9a

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) October 7, 2026

In a now-deleted post, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote, “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Qatari funded global propaganda campaign makes Joseph Goebbels look like a piker.”

A previous Daily Wire investigation carefully traced how the Muslim Brotherhood created a massive operation in the U.S.

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