Senate Republicans are panning President Trump’s proposal for the United States to take over war-torn Gaza and push nearly 2 million Palestinians in the region to resettle elsewhere, with several GOP lawmakers dismissing the plan as unrealistic.
Even so, some GOP lawmakers are praising Trump for coming up with “fresh ideas” to address a bloody conflict spanning decades that has defied years of American effort to broker peace.
Republican senators say Trump’s proposal to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” is gaining little traction on Capitol Hill and predict it won’t go anywhere, just like his plans to acquire Greenland and seize control of the Panama Canal.
“I think it’s a really dumb idea to talk about having U.S. troops in Gaza. It’s the last place on earth I’d send U.S. troops and I won’t support it,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s closest Senate allies, warned that a U.S.-led attempt to remove Palestinians from Gaza would be “very problematic.”
“All I can say is I want to destroy Hamas, but I’ve been on the phone with Arabs all day. That approach I think will be very problematic. The idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a nonstarter for every senator,” Graham said.
“I would suggest we go back to what we’ve been trying to do: Destroy Hamas and find a way for the Arab world to take over Gaza and the West Bank in a fashion that would lead to a Palestinian state Israel could live with,” Graham said.
Republican senators said that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, tried to walk back the president’s Gaza proposal during a Wednesday lunch meeting on Capitol Hill.
“Steve Witkoff was just talking about that in there, and what he said was the president doesn’t want to put any U.S. troops on the ground … and he doesn’t want to spend any U.S. money, dollars, at all,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
“My view is that I’m very opposed to any U.S. troops on the ground there and I don’t want to spend taxpayer dollars in Gaza. I want to spend taxpayer dollars cleaning up St. Louis, Missouri, cleaning up our nuclear radiation, helping our victims,” he said.
But Witkoff told GOP lawmakers that Trump’s vision for Gaza is not something the president thought of on the spur of the moment.
“Witkoff actually was asked that, and he said that they’ve been gestating on this plan for some time,” Hawley added.
Other Republican senators echoed skepticism about pouring U.S. money into a rebuilding of Gaza.
“I really am an ‘America First’ person. I really want to take care of America first,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) warned that putting U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza would be a bad idea.
“The issue of the Palestinian state has been part of a too-long negotiation between interested parties and is not something that can be unilaterally decided,” he said. “Of all the places that I wouldn’t want to see U.S. troops, it would be in places like Gaza.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said “there’s enough turmoil there” without Trump leading a U.S. intervention in the conflict.
Trump announced at a press conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “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,” he said.
Asked if he would send troops to stabilize Gaza, which has been reduced to huge piles of rubble after more than a year of war, Trump responded: “We’ll do what is necessary.”
That talk about taking a blank-check approach to rebuilding Gaza is giving Republicans on Capitol Hill serious heartburn.
“The concern is who’s responsibility is it to rebuild Gaza? I think the reaction of most Americans, me included, is ‘not ours.’ I think that’s the bottom line,” said a GOP senator who requested anonymity to discuss the reaction within the Senate Republican Conference to Trump’s proposal.
The senator said “a majority” of Senate Republicans would be opposed to a U.S. takeover of Gaza.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) noted that “some of the places” where Trump would propose resettling Gaza’s Palestinians, namely Egypt and Jordan, are firmly opposed to the idea.
“The parties in the region should have a lot to say about it,” he said. “It’s quite impractical.”
Cramer said Trump appears to be “testing the waters” for what role the United States may play.
Asked about the potential cost to U.S. taxpayers, Cramer simply responded: “Oh gosh.”
Other Republicans said they were willing to learn more about Trump’s plans for Gaza, characterizing the bold proposal he floated alongside Netanyahu on Tuesday as a “conversation starter.”
“President Trump has unconventional means of accomplishing his goals. If we can get a dialogue going among the Gulf States to provide security arrangements in Gaza that exclude Hamas and Iran, I think that would be good,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “It’s a conversation starter.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) went further than other Senate Republicans by saying he would support a new authorization for the use of military force to empower Trump to send troops to the region.
“If it were needed, yeah,” he said. “The president is taking strong action to resolve this situation. I think the American people strongly support Israel. They want a permanent fix in here, so I think we need to keep an open mind and see what the president comes up with.”
“I want to be supportive in that process,” he said.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a staunch Trump ally, cheered the proposal.
“Sounds good. You want to buy a part of it?” he quipped to a reporter when asked about Trump’s goal of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” “I think it’s a good idea.”
