President Donald Trump caused a firestorm when he suggested on Tuesday during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States should take “a long-term ownership position” of the Gaza Strip.
There was immediate consternation from the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia saying it “unequivocally rejected” the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, while Jordan’s King Abdullah II opposed “any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians.”
But Republicans struggled to defend Trump’s remarks. Sen. Thom Tillis, the Republican who faces perhaps the toughest re-election campaign in 2026, tried to deflect.
“I was saying earlier that I think President Trump was trying to paint a picture of a Gaza without Hamas, which I completely agree with,” he told The Independent. In recent weeks, Tillis has consistently voted for all of Trump’s cabinet nominees, even shepherding the nomination of Kash Patel to be FBI Director.
But even other more MAGA Republican senators were not straightforward in their answers.
“Trump is serious about peace in the Middle East, he's brought east of the Middle East before and he’ll do it again,” Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana told The Independent in reference to the Abraham Accords.
Most Senators seemed to express befuddlement and offered only canned answers.
“I need to learn more about the statement,” Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri told The Independent. Schmitt is one of Trump’s most outspoken defenders in the Senate who sits on the Armed Services Committee, and would ostensibly have oversight if Trump committed troops to the region.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a military hawk, brushed off reporters.
Meanwhile, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of Trump’s biggest critics, tried dodging reporters while hiding behind a large box being moved by a pallet before answering a question.
“I think they've seen enough turmoil in that region. I don't think that we need to contribute with a proposal,” she told The Independent.
Murkowski’s partner in moderation--who nonetheless votes more in line with the Trump administration--Susan Collins of Maine, gave a cagier answer.
“I do not know the details of the President's plan,” she told reporters. “It came out of the blue. It may be a negotiating tactic rather than planned, but I do not see it as feasible, based on the little that I know about it at this point, particularly if it's going to involve the deployment of U.S. troops.”
Unsurprisingly, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, one of Trump’s most steadfast supporters, supported the idea.
“Sounds good,” he told The Independent. “What we’re doing isn’t working.”
Trump has in the past touted that he is not a military interventionist. But since he won in November, he has at times talked about the United States acquiring Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal. This comes despite the fact he regularly said no wars started on his watch, despite the fact he ordered strikes on Syria and Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani.
“And now he wants to force 2 million people out of their out of their homes,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told The Independent. “It's ridiculous, it's un-American.”
His colleague from Arizona had a more blunt statement.
“It’s stupid,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, a combat veteran from Arizona, told The Independent. Sen. Elissa Slotkin from Michigan, who represents a state with a large Arab-American population, told reporters that Trump’s policy is laughable.
“It's something that's extremely personal to so many Michiganders,” she told reporters, citing how the Saudi Kingdom rebuked him. “Many of the people in the Gaza Strip were already refugees from 1948. So, the idea that there'd be forced removal. Not only is the violation of international law, it's just, it's just a completely unfeasible and immoral thing to do.”
Many Arab Americans in Michigan, specifically in Dearborn, broke away from Democrats in protest of Joe Biden’s steadfast support for Israel and swung for Trump, despite the fact that Trump has given solid support for Israel and accused Biden of being “a Palestinian” during their one debate.
Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia also criticized the move.
“When I look at Gaza, I see a devastating humanitarian catastrophe,” he told The Independent. “Somehow the president United States sees the future Atlantic City.”
But it’s hard to guess what exactly Trump will do. A common refrain throughout Trump’s first presidency was “take him seriously, not literally.” But the world can’t behave that way.
And the world has to take him seriously now that he has fewer restraints. When he first occupied the White House, he had retired four-star generals like James Mattis as Defense Secretary, who sought to rein him in from his more impulsive decisions. Mattis resigned in protest of Trump’s policy in Syria.
By contrast, his new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a much more willing yes-man and warrior for Trump. Whether this means Trump will actually seize Gaza is undetermined.
