President Trump in a Wednesday press conference while hosting Irish prime minister Micheál Martin at the White House appeared to backpedal on his plan to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” by expelling all Palestinian inhabitants.
Trump told reporters “Nobody is expelling any Palestinians” in response to a question on whether he still stands by his ultra-provocative remarks which were tantamount to calling for ethnic cleansing of the enclave.
REPORTER: What about the president’s plan to expel Palestinians out of Gaza?
TRUMP: Nobody is expelling any Palestinians. Who are you with?
REPORTER: I’m with Voice of America, sir.
TRUMP: Oh, no wonder. pic.twitter.com/SfosOKDnv6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2025
“We’re working hard with Israel… to see [how] we can solve the problem,” Trump explained.
The fresh remarks stand in stark contrast with his earlier February words spoken alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he said, “The US will take over the Gaza Strip… I see it as a long-term ownership position.” He had explained that Palestinians in Gaza would have to leave and be resettled elsewhere.
In the Wednesday back-and-forth with reporters he actually again called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a “Palestinian” and then quipped “He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore.”
The White House position on Gazans being expelled to other countries is based on the prior explanation that “Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance,” in the earlier words of US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes.
But even many Republicans see the plan as completely unrealistic and absurd, given that for starters it would ensure years more of brutal war, and the likelihood that conflict would spiral over into other Arab countries.
Removal of the debris which has piled up in the demolished Strip could take years or even decades…
Jordan and Egypt were among the first to vehemently reject Trump’s Gaza reconstruction plan, and Jordan’s leadership even threatened that its military would seek to prevent it.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 03/12/2025 – 23:00
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