Trump campaigned on ending foreign entanglements. Now he wants to own Gaza.
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON : President Trump campaigned on shrinking America’s role abroad. But since taking office, he has articulated a worldview that is at times closer to expansionism than isolationism.
Trump generated global shock waves Tuesday when he said the U.S. should take long-term control of Gaza, suggesting that Palestinians should be relocated while the enclave is rebuilt into the “Riviera of the Middle East." Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media that Trump would “Make Gaza Beautiful Again." Taking control of the hotly contested territory would put the U.S. at the center of the world’s most complicated diplomatic and national-security conflicts, raising the prospect that Trump is signing the country up for exactly the kind of foreign entanglement he told voters he would avoid.
Trump didn’t rule out sending American troops to Gaza to accomplish his goals. “The old Republican Party of RINOs, neocons and globalists is gone. And it is never coming back," Trump said at a 2023 GOP dinner in Florida.
As he prepared to take office, Trump made clear that he wouldn’t hire national security officials that he deemed to be too closely associated with traditional neoconservative values. Tuesday’s announcement marked a striking shift for Trump, who described the Middle East as “blood and sand" in his first term, according to a longtime adviser. Trump is now proposing to rebuild Gaza, which his own aides say could take 10 to 15 years.
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