Donald Trump is fleshing out his idea of taking over the Gaza Strip—but it doesn’t include any long-term contingencies other than carving up the nation to be consumed by other countries in the Middle East.

“The White House press secretary told us last week that you’re committed to rebuilding Gaza. Steve Witkoff said that process would take 10 to 15 years,” started a reporter in the room, referring to the real estate developer and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East. “Does your commitment to rebuilding Gaza extend beyond your time in office?”

“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza,” Trump said. “As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it.

“We’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back,” Trump continued. “There’s nothing to move back into—the place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished. Everything’s demolished.

“I mean you can’t live in those buildings right now, they’re very unstable, but we’ll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody.”

That somebody could be Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been eyeing the region for potential real estate projects since at least the beginning of last year. In March, Kushner praised Gaza’s waterfront beachfront property as “very valuable,” advocating at the time for the same plan that Trump touted last week: ethnic cleansing.

“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner told Harvard’s Middle East Initiative faculty chair Tarek Masoud on March 8. “But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.”

The definition of ethnic cleansing is the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society, per the Oxford English Dictionary. Ethnic cleansing has not been identified as an independent crime under international law, according to the United Nations.

“People can come from all over the world and live there,” Trump continued during the press conference Monday. “But we’re going to take care of the Palestinians. We’re going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and in peace and that they’re not murdered.

“This has been the most dangerous site anywhere in the world to live,” Trump added, not mentioning the fact that mass casualties in Gaza have overwhelmingly been at Israel’s hands.

By last week, more than 61,000 Palestinians had been killed in the war with Israel, per the Gaza Government Information Office. Over 15 months of fighting, Israel has cut off access to water, electricity, and food in the region under the banner of rooting out Hamas soldiers behind the October 7, 2023, attack. With the aid of American taxpayer dollars, they also decimated hospitals, health clinics, pharmacies, and shelters for millions of people in Gaza. Among those dead are 17,881 children, including 214 newborn infants.

Trump is looking to undo decades of racial progress within the military in his first month as president. 

On Monday morning, the president announced on Truth Social that he would be firing the “Board of Visitors” of each military academy, accusing the outside advisory boards meant to guide students of being “infiltrated” by wokeness. These boards are made up of military officers and current members of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties. 

“Our Service Academies have been infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues over the last four years. I have ordered the immediate dismissal of the Board of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard,” the president wrote on Truth Social Monday morning. “We will have the strongest Military in History, and that begins by appointing new individuals to these Boards. We must make the Military Academies GREAT AGAIN!”

This move aligns with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s well-documented war on racial and gender diversity in the military, and MAGA’s general war on whatever they consider “woke.” Last week, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point eliminated clubs like the Asian Pacific Forum Club, Japanese Forum Club, National Society of Black Engineers, Korean-American Relations Seminar, Vietnamese-American Cadet Association, and the Native American Heritage Forum, among others. In his first week in office, Trump also signed an executive order gutting diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs in the military. This purging of basic cultural awareness from the military is in full swing. 

Donald Trump fumbled his way through a pre-Super Bowl interview where he skirted questions about his false promises to lower inflation, and delivered a muddled tirade when asked how he planned to bring Americans together.

Fox News’ Brett Baier asked Trump about whether his plan to impose tariffs will actually help American consumers. The president is expected to announce reciprocal tariffs this week on “every country,” and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports.

“You said that ‘tariff’ is a beautiful word. There are some signs in the market, consumer confidence that they’re a little jittery,” Baier said. “So, if all goes to plan, when do you think families would be able to feel prices going down, groceries, energy? Or are you kind of saying to them, ‘Hang on, inflation may get worse until it gets better?’”

Even as Baier spoon-fed Trump an answer to sugarcoat his horrible plan to lower inflation, the president chose to divert into a complete nonanswer.

“No, I think we’re going to become a rich—and look, we’re not that rich right now! We owe $36 trillion. That’s because we let all these nations take advantage of us,” Trump said. “Same thing, like $200 billion with Canada. We owe 300—we have a deficit with Mexico of $350 billion. I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to let that happen!”

BAIER: When do you think families would be able to feel prices going down?

TRUMP: I think we're gonna become a rich-- look, we're not that rich right now. We owe $36 trillion. That's because we let all these nations take advantage of us. pic.twitter.com/fyIrfBKrSq

Trump’s nonanswer provided little comfort to consumers who are currently struggling to afford eggs amid an avian flu outbreak. In reality, Trump’s plans are expected to

© New Republic