Is Trump insane? How is he going to personally own Gaza and how is he going to rid of its inhabitants?

Yiannis Damellos

"Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth, blowing down the back roads headin' south, Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth, You're an idiot, babe, It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe." Bob Dylan

Donald Trump opened his mouth again to utter things that did not make any sense at all. In an interview with Fox News, he spoke of Gaza as the Sunset Strip, a wonderful location where many years from now, he will personally own several tourist attractions, hotels, and casinos. And he clarified that after the ravaged land is rebuilt, the Palestinians will not have the Right to Return to their homeland and they will be forced to live away from there, in neighboring countries. 

“In other words", he said in the interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, "I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever—it’s not habitable.” Trump also explained that “It would be years before it could happen.” Naturally, he forgot to explain how he will clear the land of its inhabitants. Maybe later on in another press conference hosted by the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt we will be given the details about Palestinian relocation. 

Yet, it is worth mentioning that the United Nations has warned the US that deportation from occupied territory is prohibited while Trump’s proposal to take long-term control of Gaza, which he unveiled in a press conference standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has already caused some discord within the Republican Party, which has been largely united since the election. Several Republican lawmakers have expressed skepticism of the effort while most Democrats are appalled.

Major Middle East powers have also rejected Trump’s plan. Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar have rejected evictions, while the Palestinian Authority and Hamas say they wouldn’t support an evacuation of Gaza. Jordan’s King Abdullah is expected to meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday. The president is expected to raise his Gaza proposal during the meeting, according to an administration official.

No sense at all

In the Fox News interview, Trump also appeared to suggest that Gaza would belong to him and compared it to a real-estate project. “We’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is,” he said. “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real-estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.” On Air Force One on Sunday, Trump told reporters the U.S. would own it. “We’re going to bring stability to the Middle East,” he said. “It’s a demolition site,” he added. “It’ll be reclaimed. It’ll be leveled out, and fixed up. There won’t be anybody there. Hamas will be there.” What? What did he just say? 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the president would personally own the territory or if Palestinians would be permanently displaced. Nobody knows what he meant anyway.