President Donald Trump made the remarks after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
WASHINGTON—After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump suggested the United States could “take over” the Gaza Strip to rebuild it.
Trump doubled down on his previous idea that today’s Gazans need a chance to live safely and securely somewhere else, like Egypt or Jordan. He then said, “Instead of having to go back and do it again, the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.”
“We’ll own it, and will be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. We’ll level the site and get rid of all the destroyed buildings. Just level it out and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.
“Do a real job. Do something different. [You] just can’t go back [to how it was]. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for a hundred years,” Trump said.
In response to a reporter’s question on future plans for Gaza, Trump said that Palestinians would be able to live there, as would Jews, Arabs, and others from the Middle East.
“This is for everybody,” he said.
“I don’t want to be cute. I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump said he’s floated the idea to other Middle Eastern leaders, “and they love the idea.”
“I have a feeling that despite them [Palestinians] saying no, I have a feeling that the King in Jordan and the president in Egypt will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done and people can live in harmony and in peace,” he said.
Leaders of Egypt and Jordan previously expressed opposition to Trump’s proposal for the two countries to take in more Palestinian refugees in order to “clean out” Gaza completely and ensure peace in the war-torn region.
In response to a question about the impact on a two-state peace solution, Trump said: “It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or one state or any other state.”
“It means that we want to give people a chance at a life. They have never had a chance at life because the Gaza Strip has been a hell hole for people living there.
“It’s been horrible. Hamas has made it so bad, so bad, so dangerous, so unfair to people,” he said.
In answering another reporter’s question, Trump seemed to leave the door open to Jewish sovereignty over Samaria, the biblical and Israeli name for the northern part of the West Bank.
“We’re discussing that with many of your representatives … and people do like the idea but we haven’t taken a position on it yet. But we will be.”
Trump said an announcement on the matter will be made in the next four weeks.
Trump and Netanyahu—the first foreign leader to visit Trump since his second inauguration 15 days ago–took questions after meeting for around an hour to discuss the ongoing cease-fire in Gaza, the hostage swap, Iran’s attempts to build a nuclear weapon, the normalization of Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia, and much more, after Israel’s 16 months of war on seven fronts with proxies of Iran’s Islamic regime.
Trump repeatedly referred to Gaza’s devastation, describing it as a place of “death and destruction” and “a demolition site” full of rubble, tottering buildings, and unexploded bombs.
Trump took other executive actions regarding the Middle East on Tuesday. He signed executive orders pulling the United States out of the United Nations Human Rights Council and UNRWA, the Palestinian relief agency that he accused of having funneled money to Hamas.
He renewed sanctions against Iran, which he instituted in his first term but the Biden administration reversed.
He spoke warmly of his relationship with Netanyahu, whom he referred to by his nickname of “Bibi,” plus his respect for what Israel has accomplished militarily, despite frequent opposition from the Biden administration.
Netanyahu, for his part, returned the warmth.
“I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: you are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” Netanyahu said.
He marveled at what Trump has accomplished in barely two weeks in office, and how he led the way to the historic Abraham Accords—in which four Arab nations made peace with and recognized Israel–in just four months in 2020.
“In your first term, you recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, you moved the American Embassy there. You recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. You withdrew from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal. I remember when we spoke about it, you said, ‘This is the worst deal I’ve ever seen. I’m elected. I’m walking out of it.’ That’s exactly what you did.”
The meeting comes midway through a six-week cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, featuring swaps of handfuls of Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, many of them terrorists serving life terms for murder.
Before the bilateral meeting, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff suggested that reconstruction of Gaza will take years.
“I think President Trump is looking at this from a humanitarian standpoint,” Waltz told reporters.
“You have these people that are sitting with literally thousands of unexploded ordnance in piles of rubble. At some point, we have to look realistically. How do you rebuild Gaza?” he asked. “We’re talking 10-15 years before people are able to go back.”
The Trump administration did not dictate the initial peace deal, Witkoff said, which contributed to the problem. Phase three, which involves the reconstruction of Gaza cannot proceed in the manner described in the deal agreed by the Biden administration, he said, which is a five-year schedule.
“It’s physically impossible,” Witkoff said.