Trump’s Gaza takeover proposal splinters MAGA base

The White House is trying to sell a sceptical Republican Party and foreign policy establishment on taking over Gaza, after the President surprised many of his allies with his plan.

The White House tried to sell a sceptical Republican Party and foreign policy establishment on taking over the beleaguered Gaza Strip after President Trump surprised many of his own allies with his plan to rebuild the enclave.

Concerns that Trump’s proposal was both unworkable and unwise bubbled even among Trump’s vocal supporters. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that taxpayers wouldn’t cover the cost of developing the territory and that any Palestinian relocation would be temporary. She also stressed that the president hadn’t committed to sending U.S. troops to the region.

Republicans have lined up to applaud almost every one of Trump’s moves since he took office, defending the president against criticism from Democrats. But Trump’s proposal to take long-term control of Gaza marked a rare moment of discord in a largely unified party.

“We love the president, but our focus in the War Room is East Palestine, not Palestine,” longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon said in an interview. Bannon was referring to his popular podcast, War Room, and the Ohio town that was devastated by the 2023 derailment of a train carrying hazardous waste.

One House Republican lawmaker said Trump’s proposal “just doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense to me,” adding that the idea could conflict with the GOP’s efforts to cut spending. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.), a Trump ally, said, “I think it’s a big, visionary idea that is impractical.”

A UAE AID tent stands in front of a collapsed building in the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP.

“I’ve been on the phone with Arabs all day,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C). “That approach, I think, will be very problematic.” White House aides noted that Trump’s proposal had support from some corners of the party, sending out a list of positive statements released by several Republican lawmakers and former Trump administration officials. Trump will raise the proposal during a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan next week, an administration official said.

Trump has already called for acquiring land all over the world, including the Panama Canal, Greenland and even Canada. But nothing matches the complexity of controlling Gaza long term. If pursued, a potential military occupation, which Trump hasn’t ruled out, could consume the rest of his nascent presidency by embroiling the U.S. in another Middle Eastern conflict.

Trump shocked some of his own aides when, standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, he said the U.S. would “take over” Gaza, clear it of debris and develop it into a seaside paradise. The president boasted that an American-led rebuild would usher in peace to a troubled region.

Trump has been quietly weighing the broad idea of rebuilding Gaza for months, though the discussions have been closely held. Officials said he had raised the plan in conversations with Middle Eastern leaders.

Discussions accelerated after the ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip went into effect and questions turned to what to do about the enclave, according to a U.S. official.

Palestinians take shelter in a heavily damaged building in the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP.

Trump’s verve for taking ownership of the territory grew after Steve Witkoff, the president’s Middle East envoy, visited Gaza last week and then briefed the president on what he saw. It is “uninhabitable,” Witkoff told Trump, and it wouldn’t be easy to reconstruct Gaza’s 140 square miles of land as long as Palestinians remained living amid the rubble, administration officials said. Witkoff, a billionaire real-estate developer, showed Trump photographs of the destruction in the enclave.

In the days before Netanyahu’s visit, Trump told aides he wanted to present the idea to the Israeli leader and then announce it during a press conference, officials said. Only a handful of staffers in the president’s inner circle knew about the rollout plan, according to Trump’s advisers.

Senior defence officials, who Trump may call upon to make plans to occupy and secure Gaza during its rebuild, said they first learned of the idea during the president’s public statement. “Nobody knows what’s happening,” a defence official said.

The Joint Staff has yet to receive a formal request to draft a plan to send troops to Gaza, U.S. defence officials said. And U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East, isn’t drawing up options for entering Gaza, the officials said.

For it to work, Trump would need to convince resistant neighbouring countries to take in Gaza’s two million Palestinians, lure those people from their home, potentially send U.S. forces or contractors to destroy unexploded ordnance, and attract companies to level and construct in Gaza when their safety isn’t assured.

“Sheer lunacy,” said Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. Just the idea of ridding Gaza of its inhabitants “is a crime against humanity.” Leavitt on Wednesday sought to clarify Trump’s plans, as criticism from the president’s allies mounted. “The president hasn’t committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza,” she said during a briefing with reporters where she showed large photos of bombed out neighbourhoods in the strip. She said Trump wasn’t ruling out the possibility of troops because the president sees the potential for military action as leverage.

Leavitt said the plan to rebuild Gaza “does not mean American taxpayers will be funding this effort.” And she cast the proposal as an idea rooted in compassion for the people of the region. “The president made this decision with a humanitarian heart for all people in the region,” Leavitt said.

A billboard bearing a portrait of Donald Trump on the facade of a hotel building in Tel Aviv. Picture: AFP.

Current and former U.S. officials said Trump was laying out the first offer in what would likely turn into a lengthy global negotiation.

“Trump left space for other countries to present ideas and potentially join in a solution,” said Simone Ledeen, a top Pentagon official for the region during the president’s first term. “This is the language of the Middle East.” Saudi Arabia, for decades one of the Palestinians’ staunchest regional champions, strongly rebuked Trump’s proposal. The kingdom’s commitment to a future Palestinian state was “firm and unwavering,” its foreign ministry said in a Tuesday night statement. “This unwavering position is non-negotiable and not subject to compromises.” Some Israeli officials in Netanyahu’s government applauded Trump’s strategy, especially the far-right members who have long called for pushing Palestinians out of Gaza. Bezalel Smotrich, the country’s finance minister, praised the idea on social media as “the real answers to Oct. 7,” referring to the 2023 Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took around 250 people hostage.

Dow Jones