Trump First Floated Gaza Takeover Pitch Just Two Hours Before Press Briefing: Report

President Donald Trump first spontaneously unveiled a plan for the US to take over Gaza in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—just two hours before publicly announcing it.

Two officials briefed on the discussion told Axios this wasn’t on the original agenda. The day had started with plans to reinforce Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. But somewhere between the prepared notes and the Oval Office, Trump decided to go rogue.

“This can’t go on like this,” Trump reportedly said during the Tuesday meeting, referring to Gaza’s post-war devastation. But then he dropped the bombshell: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip… we will develop it.”

Staffers called it an “audible,” Axios reported, and the aftermath was seismic as the White House scrambled to clarify, walking back the most explosive part of Trump’s proposal by insisting any relocation of Palestinians would be “temporary,” despite Trump’s on-the-record suggestion they’d be moved out permanently.

“Trump didn’t tell Bibi where this idea came from,” an Israeli official told Axios, adding that Trump made it clear he’d be announcing the plan at their joint press conference.

After scribbling down his last-minute thoughts, Axios reported, which were hastily inserted into his official remarks, Trump shared his impromptu Gaza pitch with the world.