President Donald Trump provoked Democratic outrage and GOP puzzlement over his plan to take over and redevelop the Gaza Strip.
Congressional Republicans did not dismiss the idea out of hand as Trump called for the relocation of Palestinians at a Tuesday evening press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But the lawmakers questioned whether such a plan was practical as Arab states stand by their commitment to an independent state for the Palestinians, with its capital in East Jerusalem.
“We’ll see what our Arab friends say about that,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a close ally of both the president and Israel, told Jewish Insider.
Trump sidestepped whether U.S. troops would be needed to secure the strip, only telling reporters, “We’ll do what is necessary” to develop the land. But the possibility raised eyebrows with Republicans aligned with the president’s foreign policy agenda.
“I thought we voted for America First,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a libertarian senator, said on Wednesday morning.
“We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood,” Paul posted on X, responding to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call to “Make Gaza Beautiful Again.”
Democratic criticism was more pointed, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the first Palestinian American to serve in Congress, accusing Trump of “openly calling for ethnic cleansing.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) expressed bewilderment – “He’s totally lost it” – before calling the land takeover a Trumpian “distraction” that was meant as a provocation, not actual policy.
“I have news for you – we aren’t taking over Gaza,” Murphy said on X.
“But the media and the chattering class will focus on it for a few days and Trump will have succeeded in distracting everyone from the real story – the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people,” he added.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stopped short of endorsing the occupation of Gaza but called Trump’s proposal a “bold move” at his weekly press conference on Wednesday morning.
“The initial announcement yesterday, I think, was greeted by surprise, by many, but cheer by I think, people all around the world,” Johnson said.
“Here’s the problem. We leave Gaza in its current form, and we risk another Oct. 7,” he added. “There’s always a risk of proxies of Iran, all these terrorist organizations, whose stated, openly stated, goal is to eliminate Israel as a state. So, it just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer. I think that’s logical.”
Trump’s proposal suggests a continuation of the pro-Israel policies of his first term, during which he relocated the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
It also marks the growing role he sees for the federal government, coming on the heels of his suggestion that the U.S. take ownership of TikTok.
Trump told reporters that he envisions a redeveloped Gaza as a place where all the “world’s people,” including Palestinians, can cohabitate. But human rights advocates say the forced removal of nearly 2 million Palestinians would violate the Geneva Convention.
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For days, Trump has been calling for Palestinians to be relocated to neighboring states, including Egypt and Jordan, describing Gaza as an uninhabitable “demolition site” that will take a decade or more to rebuild.
Republicans like Paul suggested that control of Gaza by the Arab League or another external organization would be preferable to U.S. occupation.
Rachel Schilke contributed to this report.
