WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and renewed his insistence that Gaza could somehow be emptied of all residents, controlled by the U.S. and redeveloped as a tourist area.
It’s an audacious, but highly unlikely, scheme to dramatically remake the Middle East and would require Jordan and other Arab nations to accept more refugees from Gaza — something Abdullah reiterated after their meeting that he opposes.
The pair met in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Marco Rubio also on-hand. The president suggested he wouldn’t withhold U.S. aid to Jordan or Egypt if they don’t agree to dramatically increase the number of people from Gaza they take in.
“I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said. That contradicted the Republican president previously suggesting that holding back aid from Washington was a possibility.
ABDULLAH WAS ASKED repeatedly about Trump’s plan to clear out Gaza and overhaul it as a resort on the Mediterranean Sea — but didn’t make substantive comments on it while also not committing to the idea that his country could accept large numbers of new refugees from Gaza.
He did say, however, that Jordan would be willing “right away” to take as many as 2,000 children in Gaza who are suffering from cancer or otherwise ill.
“I finally see somebody that can take us across the finish line to bring stability, peace and prosperity to all of us in the region,” the king said of Trump in his statement at the top of the meeting.
Abdullah left the White House after about two hours and was headed to Capitol Hill to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. He posted on X that during his meeting with Trump, “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
“This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” Abdullah wrote.
That was despite Trump using his appearance with Abdullah to repeat suggestions that the U.S. could come to control Gaza. Trump also said Tuesday that it wouldn’t require committing American funds but that the U.S. overseeing the war-torn region would be possible, “Under the U.S. authority,” without elaborating what that actually was.
“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control in Gaza. He suggested that the redeveloped area could have new hotels, office buildings and houses, “and we’ll make it exciting.”
“I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it,” Trump, who built a New York real estate empire that catapulted him to fame, said of Gaza’s residents, while also insisting that he personally would not be involved in development.
Trump has previously suggested that Gaza’s residents could be displaced temporarily or permanently, an idea that leaders around the Arab world have sharply rebuked.
Additionally, Trump renewed his suggestions that a tenuous ceasefire between Hamas and Israel could be canceled if Hamas doesn’t release all of the remaining hostages it is holding by midday on Saturday. Trump first made that suggestion on Monday, though he insisted then that the ultimate decision lies with Israel.
“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” Trump said Tuesday of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”
The king’s visit came at a perilous moment for the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas is accusing Israel of violating the truce and that it is pausing future releases of hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
