House Republican Waters Down Trump’s ‘Owning’ Gaza Comments: Here’s ‘What President Trump Is Talking About’

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) joined Fox Business Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday morning to discuss a wide range of topics and eventually landed on President Donald Trump’s shock suggestion the night before that the U.S. should occupy Gaza and remove the population to build some kind of an international “riviera.”

“Trump’s bold ideas are just happening with such a rapid pace,” began Bartiromo, a close Trump ally, adding:

It’s unbelievable. From Greenland to the Panama Canal to the Iron Dome that he wants for America. To now, the US potentially taking over the Gaza Strip. I want to get your take on all of this. Is this do you really believe that the US can achieve taking over the Gaza Strip even as you’ve got other regional countries saying, well, we need a two-state solution?

“Well, first and foremost, the two-state solution has been something that they always talk about at the U.N. or any model UN class in any high school in America. But it is not functionally possible. Who is Israel supposed to actually negotiate? The Palestinian Authority? I don’t think so, because their leadership is significantly older and there’s no clear line of of transition into who’s going to take over next. So you can’t cut a deal with them,” Donalds replied, before offering his own take an what he thinks Trump actually meant:

I think that what President Trump is talking about is working with Israel and other allies and friends in that region in order to clean Gaza up under, under U.S. leadership, not direct U.S. decision making, but U.S. leadership working with those countries in the region to get Gaza in a position where, well, number one, it’s rebuilt.

Number two, it’s not a safe haven for Hamas or any other terrorist front group. You’ve got to have sound leadership and security in that part of the world so that Palestinians and Palestinian children actually grow up in an area where they can actually learn without being indoctrinated, where they can actually build an enterprise without fear of it being taken away from them by by the Hamas leadership or any other terror leadership. Yeah, that’s in my view, is what President Trump is talking about. And that’s something that can be achieved.

“Well, we found a YouTube video of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, of course, back in February of 2024. And he said Gaza is waterfront property. It could be very valuable if people would focus on building up their livelihoods. I mean, he makes a great point. I mean, look at these pictures of the Gaza Strip. It’s an absolute war zone, obviously, and completely demolished and uninhabitable,” concluded Bartiromo before moving on to another topic.

During a Tuesday evening press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”

He later added, “Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know… We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal, and I don’t wanna be cute, I don’t wanna be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East.”

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.