Nearly ten years ago, on June 16, 2016, Donald Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul, made his descent down the gilded escalator at Trump Tower in New York City to a packed room of supporters, where he announced his candidacy for President of the United States, in a speech that later turned out to be one of the most consequential in the history of American politics.
Trump talked about a number of issues: from unfair trade agreements between the U.S. and countries like Mexico, Canada and China, to issues of border security, military inefficiency and so much more. However, the overwhelming theme of his speech was clear: Trump believed the United States was being ripped off by the world—and that it was time to focus on the needs of the American people.
Fast forward to 2024. Trump, now the president for a second time, is advocating for the U.S. to take over the Gaza strip, which he believes has been a “symbol of death and destruction for so many decades.” In a press conference Feb. 4, the president laid out his latest plan to redevelop the Middle East, which he believes can be paid for by neighboring countries.
“We will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it, and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” said Trump.
Additionally, the President and his White House have delivered mixed messaging about what this plan could mean for the nearly two million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip. Trump has suggested pressuring Egypt and Jordan to accept refugees from Palestine permanently forcing them out of the region. He has also suggested that he believes Iran, Saudi Arabia and many other countries in the region would support his plan to redevelop the Gaza Strip and relocate the Palestinians.
However, the White House walked back these comments the very next day. On Feb. 5, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed concerns surrounding a permanent relocation by saying, “The President has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza for the rebuilding of this effort… It’s a demolition site right now, it’s not a livable place for any human being.”
While it remains to be seen if this is a serious proposal or how it would play out, both the President and his team have not ruled out the use of military force.
As a first-time voter in 2024, I proudly and unapologetically voted for President Trump, and this is not why I voted for him. President Trump’s approach to Gaza isn’t just a slight departure from his campaign messaging, it is a complete 180-degree pivot.
One of the president’s key campaign promises was to reduce government spending and put more money in the hands of Americans. For too long, the U.S. has been nothing more than a sugar daddy for the rest of the world, and in many cases has been giving money to countries that are not aligned with the U.S. and are fighting wars that have nothing to do with us.
71.9 billion dollars were spent on foreign aid in the 2023 year, and while there may be some legitimacy to Trump’s claims that neighboring countries could pay for the redevelopment of Gaza, why should we take the risk of carrying out this plan if they are not fully committed to it? If these neighboring nations simply decide that funding the redevelopment of another nation is not in the best interests of their taxpayers, what’s next?
Another one of the President’s key campaign promises was to secure our border and limit the number of people entering the United States. President Trump has done his best to keep his word on this issue, by directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Patrol to lead operations across the country to find and deport people who are in the country illegally. However, if President Trump is serious about forcing Palestinians to leave the region, this will cause a refugee crisis of epic proportions that the U.S. will undoubtedly have to deal with.
It is not logical to expect nearly two million people to just relocate to neighboring countries that don’t want them in the first place, especially when the Palestinians don’t even want to leave their land. Trump should understand this more than anybody as a President who essentially got elected for saying that he doesn’t believe the U.S. should be forced to accept unchecked numbers of migrants who may not even wish to assimilate with American culture.
Throughout the entirety of his political career, the president has marketed himself as a different kind of Republican. He routinely attacked neoconservatives like George W. Bush, as well as the appropriately named Dick Cheney and many others for their support of the Iraq war, a war Trump has called a “big, fat mistake” that destabilized the middle east.
As Senator Rand Paul said Feb. 5 in a post on X, “The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians. I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”
Simply put, President Trump is the president of the U.S. As an elected official, he has a sworn duty to advocate for the interests of the American people.
Redeveloping Gaza, which is nearly 5,500 miles away from the United States, does absolutely not one single thing to improve the quality of life for a single person living in the United States, and as always, we will get no return on investment for the fruits of our labor.
Rebuilding Gaza to try to expand the sphere of Western influence in a part of the world that has rejected the values of the U.S. time and time again is a waste of time, money, resources and lives. If countries in the Middle East choose not to get along with each other, that is their prerogative. We are not the world police. U.S. intervention in the Middle East has never worked any time it has ever been tried, so it is high time we stop trying to make it work.
President Trump needs to be reminded that “America First” means America FIRST.
