Now that he’s in office, Donald Trump suddenly doesn’t seem so confident in his position on Israel’s war on Palestine.
“How confident are you, Mr. President, that you can keep the ceasefire in Gaza?” asked a reporter in the Oval Office while Trump signed a flurry of executive orders Monday night.
“I’m not confident,” Trump responded. “It’s not our war. It’s their war.”
Reporter: How confident are you that you can keep the ceasefire in Gaza
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2025
Trump: It's not our war. It is their war. I am not confident. pic.twitter.com/CJJWT4KMgC
The comments stood in stark contrast to a more defiant version the forty-seventh president pitched at his inaugural address, in which Trump claimed that America’s success would be measured “not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end.”
And just last week, Trump—who at the time hadn’t been in office for any portion of the war—jumped to take credit for the historic and fledgling ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.”
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the press that “both President Trump and President Biden gave full backing to Israel’s right to return to fighting, if Israel comes to the conclusion that negotiations on Phase B are futile.” Phase two of the ceasefire agreement would see the removal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
But Trump’s perspective on Gaza, which he freely shared on Monday, appeared tainted by his years as a real estate developer. Referring to a photo he had seen of the devastation in the region, Trump referred to Gaza as a “demolition site” before going on to suggest that the territory could be completely remade.
“It’s got to be rebuilt in a different way,” Trump said. “Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea. The best weather. You know, everything is good. Some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting. Some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.”
It’s not the first time that a member of the Trump family real estate empire has hinted that Palestine could be a developer’s paradise. In March, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner praised Gaza’s waterfront beachfront property as “very valuable.”
“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 his interviewer, Harvard’s Middle East Initiative faculty chair Tarek Masoud. “But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.”