All initially went well. Trump praised Qatar — where Barrack, who is Arab American, has deep business ties — as a "crucial strategic partner." Then Trump reversed course a few weeks later and attacked Qatar as "a funder of terrorism at a very high level."
Barrack was taken aback that the president was intervening in a regional dispute. So he did what few others in Trump's orbit have done: He told the president, in effect, that he was wrong.
Few people are closer to Trump than Barrack, his friend for three decades.