Trump ‘floods the zone’ with bizarre AI video of future Gaza where he is king
Washington: Just before midnight, the alert went off: Donald Trump had made a new post on his Truth Social account. Nothing unusual in that – the US president posts frequently and at all times of the day.
But what he published this time was remarkable. The AI-generated video purported to show “WHAT’S NEXT” for Gaza, the Palestinian territory decimated by 18 months of war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas, which Trump has suggested the US should “take over” and redevelop.
The video depicted a future Gaza Strip that looked something like a cross between Dubai and the Gold Coast: a glittering coastline lined with skyscrapers and apartments, superyachts docked by the shore, and a gaudy luxury hotel emblazoned with the brand: “TRUMP GAZA.”
Even more bizarrely, the 30-second video contained clips of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lying shirtless and sipping cocktails by a hotel pool, Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk dancing and throwing cash in the air, bearded androgynous belly dancers, Trump dancing with a half-naked woman (not his wife Melania), a child holding a gold balloon of Trump’s face and an enormous golden statue of Trump, with children looking up at him in awe.
The whole thing was set to a crude, custom backing track that included the lyrics: “No more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here.”
The source of the production was not clear, and it prompted confusion and condemnation even on Truth Social. Top responses branded it “weird”, “horrible”, “frightening”, “sick-inducing”, “insensitive” and “repugnant”. “I have supported you since day one, but this is filth,” one person said. “There is no God in this.”
Coming at the end of a day when Trump was finalising a major economic and security deal with Ukraine, and preparing for his first cabinet meeting (which included Musk), the post could perhaps be dismissed as just another strange and outrageous dispatch from Trump’s trigger-happy fingers.
Trump likes to troll. He throws stuff out into the public realm without an afterthought; indeed, his entire pitch for the US to take over Gaza and redevelop it into “the Riviera of the Middle East” probably fits into this category. Likewise, his occasional asides about running again in 2028 for an unconstitutional third term.
Much of Trump’s social media output is content for content’s sake: the past 24 hours alone have been a grab bag of Fox News clips, short videos from the White House, an announcement about copper tariffs, criticism of Apple over diversity policies and angry broadsides at book authors and The Wall Street Journal. There’s no filter there.
It’s always worth remembering former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s instructive quote on these matters. “The real opposition is the media,” he told writer Michael Lewis in 2018. “And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
The Gaza video would appear to be a prime example of this. Then again, Trump is the president of the United States, so it has to be taken at least a bit seriously.
‘We don’t talk about that any more’
He’s certainly keen to keep talking about the Middle East.
“We don’t even talk about that any more,” Trump said in the Oval Office while answering questions predominantly about Russia and Ukraine. “You guys haven’t asked one question about the Middle East. But the Middle East seems to be doing relatively well.”
In his extremely crass way, perhaps Trump is right to remind us that, despite the shaky ceasefire and hostage deal between Hamas and Israel, the situation in Gaza is wholly unresolved.
Mind games: Is Trump actually trying to draw attention to the unresolved situation in Gaza?Credit: AP
He brought it up again in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, US time. But when asked about the next steps, including a planned “phase two” of the ceasefire deal in which Israel would withdraw from Gaza, Trump largely washed his hands of it and deferred to Netanyahu. “Israel has to make that decision,” he said.
Trump noted the return of many hostages, as well as the bodies of dead Israelis killed by Hamas. “Very sad situation,” Trump said. “At some point, somebody’s gonna say, ‘We’re gonna do something about this’.”
It was a vague series of statements which, together with the bizarre Gaza video, suggests the president has mentally moved on from the guts of the conflict – or is at least temporarily occupied with Ukraine.
He wants to claim a win on the ceasefire and hostage deal and see if he can extract profit for the US (and potentially for his property developer friends and himself) from whatever happens next.
In that sense, astounding as the Gaza video was, it was vintage Trump.
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