--- title: Donald Trump: Qatar Has Funded Terrorism description: President Trump directly contradicted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on how to handle Qatar, speaking one after the other in the same day. canonical: https://time.com/4813247/donald-trump-contradict-rex-tillerson-qatar/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-09T20:00:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:21:50.771Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Just Directly Contradicted His Secretary of State og:description: The two had very different comments on Qatar og:url: https://time.com/4813247/donald-trump-contradict-rex-tillerson-qatar/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt397b38e4dd1a4ae7/6988d115cf40a8d053c48113/trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Holds News Conference With President Of Romania Klaus Iohannis og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Just Directly Contradicted His Secretary of State twitter:description: The two had very different comments on Qatar twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt397b38e4dd1a4ae7/6988d115cf40a8d053c48113/trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Just Directly Contradicted His Secretary of State  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 9, 2017 8:00 PM UTC  President Trump holds a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House, on June 9, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Trump holds a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House, on June 9, 2017 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 9, 2017 8:00 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4813263/donald-trump-james-comey-testify-under-oath/) directly contradicted Secretary of State [Rex Tillerson](http://time.com/4803766/paris-agreement-rex-tillerson/) on how to handle [Qatar](http://time.com/4808609/russia-hacker-qatar-diplomatic-crisis/), speaking one after the other in the same afternoon. In a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Trump touted a recent blockade of Qatar by neighboring countries as a success in his recent foreign trip. “The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump said Friday. “Nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior. So we had a decision to make. Do we take the easy road, or do we finally take a hard but necessary action? We have to stop the funding of terrorism.” But earlier the same day, Tillerson said the opposite, urging an end to the blockade. “We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar,” Tillerson said, just before he attended Trump’s press conference. “There are humanitarian consequences to this blockade… The blockade is also impairing U.S. and other international business activities in the region and has created a hardship on the people of Qatar and the people whose livelihoods depend on commerce with Qatar. The blockade is hindering U.S. military actions in the region and the campaign against ISIS.” Both statements come less than a week after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar. The conflicting messages coming out of the White House and State Department show the Trump Administration may lack a cohesive strategy for the United States’ [complicated relationship](http://time.com/4807216/donald-trump-twitter-qatar-terrorism/) with the Gulf nation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4813247/donald-trump-contradict-rex-tillerson-qatar/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4813247/donald-trump-contradict-rex-tillerson-qatar/"},"headline":"President Trump Just Directly Contradicted His Secretary of State","datePublished":"2017-06-09T20:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:21:50.771Z","description":"The two had very different comments on Qatar","url":"https://time.com/4813247/donald-trump-contradict-rex-tillerson-qatar/","keywords":["White House","State Department","Qatar","onetime","president trump","Rex Tillerson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt397b38e4dd1a4ae7/6988d115cf40a8d053c48113/trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt397b38e4dd1a4ae7/6988d115cf40a8d053c48113/trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Holds News Conference With President Of Romania Klaus Iohannis","caption":"President Trump Holds News Conference With President Of Romania Klaus Iohannis","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4813247/donald-trump-contradict-rex-tillerson-qatar/","name":"President Trump Just Directly Contradicted His Secretary of State"}}]}] ```