February 14, 2025 | Commentary
Trump’s Gaza Plan and Its Larger Meaning
It’s the ‘art of the deal’ technique on a global scale
February 14, 2025 | Commentary
Trump’s Gaza Plan and Its Larger Meaning
It’s the ‘art of the deal’ technique on a global scale
Excerpt
The Disruptor in Chief is back. Donald Trump’s frenetic issuance of executive orders in the early weeks of his second term has Washington gasping for breath. But it was a press conference—Trump’s February 4 White House joint appearance with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—that may set the world on a new course.
Reading from a piece of paper that was likely penned by a former Middle East adviser from his first term, Trump announced his intent to vacate the embattled Gaza Strip of its inhabitants and then rebuild the Mediterranean coastal enclave, which has been reduced to rubble since the Hamas assault against Israel on October 7, 2023. This would be an American development project, said the real estate president.
Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Follow him on X @JSchanzer.