Trump's administration later suggested U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who as Exxon Mobil's CEO had business with Qatar, as a possible mediator. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said isolating Qatar would not resolve any problems.
Like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Qatar is a member of the GCC and of the oil-cartel OPEC.
Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar could nonetheless survive "forever", adding that it respected worldwide agreements and would continue supplying liquefied natural gas to the UAE.
"The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level", President Trump said at a White House press conference on Friday before calling on the Gulf emirate to "end that funding".
Tillerson further called on Doha to "do more" and "more quickly" to withdraw support for extremist groups, but asked that no further escalation between Qatar and the other countries take place. The State Department had said the US learned only at the last minute about the Arab nations' plan to cut ties.
A senator on the Foreign Relations Committee, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., noticed the contradiction between Trump's and Tillerson's remarks, writing on Twitter that this is not how foreign policy is supposed to work. It said Qatar may need to tap its sovereign wealth fund and central bank reserves to offset a major outflow of funds, and considers foreign financing of the economy to be at an elevated risk. "Turkey has pledged to support them, and there is provocative news that Iran might support them, too".
"The blockage is hindering US military action in the region, and the campaign against ISIS", Rex Tillerson said.
He also added that the blockade was causing "unintended consequences, especially during the holy month of Ramadan" and listed food shortages, the separation of family members, and the withdrawal of children from school as examples.
Other reports earlier said food had started to disappear from the shelves of stores in Doha, the Qatari capital, immediately after Saudi Arabia - which provides above 90 percent of Qatar's food supplies - shut its borders with the country.
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Even in that scenario, May's job would still be in jeopardy and uncertainty would surround the future course of Brexit. UK's main broadcasters were reporting sources had told them May would not be quitting in the wake of the shock result.
They were speaking after the Qatari riyal fell to an 11-year low against the USA dollar in the spot market on Wednesday amid signs that some foreign portfolio investment funds were pulling money out of Qatar, because of its diplomatic rift with other Gulf states. But at the Pentagon, a spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said only long-term military planning was affected.
But Qatar sees itself as a key Middle East ally of the United States and there are around 10,000 U.S. servicemen based in the country.
Still, the Pentagon has been developing contingency plans in case there's any interruption, defense officials said.
Standard & Poor's has downgraded Qatar's rating, warning that its diplomatic crisis with other Middle Eastern nations could prompt investors to yank money out of the country and hurt economic growth.
It wasn't immediately clear how Qatar, which hosts some 10,000 USA troops, might respond to Trump's critique.
A group of Gulf nations led by Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties as well as land, sea and air travel with Qatar on June 5, accusing the country of supporting Sunni extremist groups and Iranian-backed Shiite militants to destabilize the region.
The UAE Minister of State added that Qatar has also to finish "its support of Muslim Brotherhood and it has to forbid all religious figures using Mosques and religious institutions as platforms to incite against GCC countries".
Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua that his country expects from fellow Gulf state Qatar "to stop blatantly and openly working against the stability and security of the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries".
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