General Discussion

On the contrary, earlier in the week, Trump abandoned decades of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy and publicly declared his belief that Palestinians should leave the Gaza Strip to “clean out” the enclave. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius noted soon after that the American president’s comments “astonished moderate Arab leaders who had been looking forward to working with him.”

A week later, as NBC News reported, the Republican went much further down the same radical path:

President Donald Trump, speaking at a White House news conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that the U.S. would seek ownership of the war-torn Gaza Strip after saying Palestinians have no choice but to leave their homes there. “We’ll own it,” Trump said of Gaza.

The Republican, at the same press conference, described his vision of the United States maintaining a “long-term ownership position” of Gaza......

Trump was also asked at the same press conference whether he has the legal authority to take a sovereign territory. He never quite got around to answering the question.

Link to tweet

The president might’ve struggled with this point because, according to experts in international law, his plan is illegal.

The reactions on Capitol Hill were far from positive. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was willing to go out on a limb and call Trump’s plan “problematic,” but Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia was far more direct, describing the proposal as “deranged” and “nuts.”