Donald Trump outlined an extraordinary plan for peace in the Middle East by moving more than one million people out of Gaza and into Jordan and Egypt.
‘You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,’ he told DailyMail.com aboard the presidential jet Air Force One on Saturday.
It was unclear if he meant move everyone out. But the idea will be immediately controversial, stoking Arab fears of a plot to give Palestinian land to Israel.
But ever the property mogul, Trump saw the solution to the region’s conflict in construction and land as he described a phone call with Jordan’s King Abdullah earlier in the day.
He said he asked him to take in more Palestinian refugees from a region mired in war.
‘You know over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen,’ he said in answer to DailyMail.com’s questions during a 20-minute question and answer session on the presidential jet with his traveling press pool.
‘It’s literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.’
He said he will make the same request to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi when they talk on Sunday.
President Donald Trump outlined an extraordinary plan for peace in the Middle East moving more than a million people out of Gaza speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Saturday
Trump wants to move more than a million people out of Gaza, where a devastating war reduced the Palestinian enclave to rubble. Pictured, Palestinians, displaced by Israel’s order into southern Gaza during the war, dismantle their tent as they wait to be allowed to return to their home in northern Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
‘You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,’ he told DailyMail.com aboard the presidential jet Air Force One on Saturday
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‘I’d like Egypt to take people,’ he said. ‘And I’d like Jordan to take people.’
Trump said it might be a temporary fix or it could be longer term. But either way the plan will likely be hard to sell to Israel’s Arab neighbors who are reluctant to take on more refugees, and hard to sell to the people of Gaza, who fear they would never be able to return.
Speaking about the effects of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Trump said he complimented Abdullah for already housing many Palestinian refugees.
‘I’d love for you to take on more, cause I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.’
The president spoke after delivering a rally style speech in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he thanked voters for helping him win the state in November’s election.
On Friday, he visited disaster zones in North Carolina and California after a busy first week back in office.
He defended his decision to fire more than a dozen inspectors general, who act as government watchdogs.
Palestinian children play next to a building destroyed by Israeli army strikes in the central Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis earlier this month
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters including DailyMail.com aboard Air Force One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday afternoon
Ever the property mogul, Trump sees the solution to the region’s conflict in construction and land as he described a phone call with Jordan’s King Abdullah earlier in the day.
An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows Palestinians walking through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Rafah, Gaza
This is how the beach in Gaza looked before the war and earlier this week Trump said it was a ‘phenomenal location’ but said it looked like a ‘massive demolition site’
Critics called it a Friday night purge but Trump portrayed it as a routine act of housekeeping by a new administration.
‘I don’t know them … but some people thought that some were unfair, some were not doing their job and it’s a very standard thing to do,’ he told reporters aboard his plane.
‘Very much like the US attorneys.’
He also hinted that Saudi Arabia could be the destination for his first foreign trip.
‘It could be Saudi Arabia, it could be UK,’ he said.
‘Traditionally it could be UK. Last time I went to Saudi Arabia because they agreed to buy $450 billion of American United States merchandise.’