President Donald Trump's strange Gaza proposal: Look, every journalist gets a choice in terms of how they choose to cover the Trump years. He says some absolutely crazy stuff, over and over again, and it's frequently unclear how much is rooted in reality, what he's actually pursuing, what he's even capable of pursuing, or if he's just spitballing or staking out a negotiating position, recognizing that the actual resolution will be far from the initial offer. I'll let you know right off the bat that I think some of his weird wish casting is unlikely to happen and that choosing to be maximally apoplectic about it—like many journalists were for the duration of his first term—feels like a waste of time. Your mileage may vary, and you may feel like I'm improperly calibrated on this front (I welcome feedback). But my aim is to inform, and getting too incensed about something that's unlikely to happen runs counter to that goal.
Anyway, last night Trump said that the United States should take over the Gaza Strip, forcing all Palestinians to leave. He was hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House when he made these remarks, suggesting that Gazans be moved to places like Egypt and Jordan to escape the devastation in the strip rained down by Israel in response to Hamas' October 7 attack.
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," said Trump, sounding like a real estate developer, saying that under the United States' watchful eye, it could someday become "the Riviera of the Middle East" (after all unexploded munitions are dealt with).
