With a mix of lobbying, potential investment and pledged support for the United States military, Qatar's charm offensive with the Trump Administration appears to have paid off.
Last week, top Qatari officials were feted at a lavish reception and august think tank in Washington...Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's foreign minister, was given a respectful audience at the American Enterprise Institute, one of Washington's most prestigious conservative think tanks.
Here is a link to the February 1, 2018 AEI event that the newspaper referenced.
Here is a 2012 Think Tank Watch piece about Qatar's influence at US think tanks.
In 2014, a member of Congress even targeted the Brookings Institution, which has a branch in Doha, Qatar, for its funding of the country.
In 2017, a watchdog group put together "Your Western Think Tank Funding Cheatsheet for the Qatar-GCC Conflict."