In a shocking press conference Tuesday night, Donald Trump said he’s open to sending U.S. troops to Gaza to take “ownership” of the territory.
In several comments, Trump made clear that he envisions “long-term” U.S. control over Gaza’s redevelopment, an idea that disregards Palestinian self-determination entirely. When asked if he would send American troops to the region, he did not rule it out, stating, “We’ll do what is necessary… If it’s necessary, we’ll do that.”
Forcibly removing Palestinians from their land and taking control of Gaza is a blatant war crime, violating international law and the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people. The forced displacement of an entire population, combined with military occupation, constitutes both ethnic cleansing and a direct assault on Palestinian sovereignty.
Trump’s comments followed his earlier suggestion that Palestinians should be forcibly removed from Gaza and “permanently” resettled elsewhere, an idea that amounts to ethnic cleansing. Rather than supporting the right of Palestinians to return and rebuild their homeland, Trump proposed that the U.S. take control of the strip and oversee its reconstruction on its own terms.
“We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He did not acknowledge that those bombs—many of which have devastated civilian homes, hospitals, and refugee camps—were largely supplied by the U.S. and its allies.
He went on to describe an economic redevelopment plan that he claimed would create “unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.” Left unspoken was what those jobs and housing would look like, who would control them, and whether the people of Gaza—already subjected to decades of Israeli occupation, siege, and bombardment—would have any say in their own futures.
Trump’s vision aligns with the colonial logic that has long guided U.S. and Israeli policy in the region: the idea that Western powers can erase an indigenous population and then reengineer the land for their own benefit. By proposing a U.S.-controlled redevelopment of Gaza, he is pushing an agenda of exploitation rather than justice, displacement rather than liberation.
The proposal to deploy U.S. troops under the guise of security is yet another example of how American military power is wielded to entrench imperial dominance. Far from serving as neutral peacekeepers, American forces in Gaza would likely reinforce Israeli apartheid policies and suppress Palestinian resistance to occupation.
Trump’s remarks also expose the bipartisan complicity of U.S. imperialism in Palestine. While his rhetoric may be more explicit, his approach is not radically different from the decades-long U.S. policy of unconditional support for Israel’s violent expansionism. The notion that the U.S. should “own” Gaza is simply the latest articulation of an old strategy: control, exploit, and erase Palestinian existence while claiming to act in the name of progress.
As Palestinians continue to resist displacement and colonization, Trump’s comments serve as a chilling reminder of the forces aligned against them. But history shows that no empire lasts forever, and the fight for Palestinian liberation will not be erased by imperial fantasies of ownership and control.
