Several Fox News hosts on Wednesday heaped praise on Donald Trump’s proposal to “take over” Gaza and forcibly relocate nearly 2 million Palestinians to build the “Riviera of the Middle East,” saying the plan — that’s been labeled “ethnic cleansing” by many — shows the president is playing “four-dimensional chess.”
During a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump shocked world leaders by repeatedly declaring that the United States should “own” Gaza and resettle the population of the territory so it could be developed into a vacation destination. The stunning proposal, which even left Netanyahu blindsided, has been widely angrily rejected by Arab leaders, while the head of the United Nations warned against “ethnic cleansing” in the strip.
With the international community reeling over yet another chaotic declaration from the new president, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered few answers on Wednesday, instead describing her boss as “an outside-of-the-box thinker” who was trying to solve “unsolvable” problems. Saying “the president has said he’s been socializing this idea for quite some time,” Leavitt acknowledged that it hadn’t been formalized until it “was written in the president’s remarks last night as he revealed it to the world.”
While the president faced an onslaught of criticism over his Gaza occupation plan, the denizens of his favorite cable news network dutifully leaped to his side and gushed over how brilliant it was.
“If you have the opportunity for economic development, and supplied unlimited number of jobs and housing, and a good, fresh, ‘beautiful piece of land’ like he calls it, why wouldn't you consider it?" Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt exclaimed on Wednesday morning. “Why wouldn't they say thanks for doing this?”
“And agree or disagree with the idea that he presented, he was talking about a new day for the Palestinian people,” her colleague Lawrence Jones added. “And that’s one thing. They haven’t had hope. You got all these kids from birth that are taught to hate another country, to hate another people. They need something that can uplift them. I’m not saying this is the solution, but I like the conversation being started.”
That appeared to be the central theme throughout the day on the network, as several other hosts and commentators also framed the president’s announcement as an opening gambit to bring other leaders and countries to the negotiating table, essentially parroting the “take Trump seriously, not literally” narrative.
At the top of midday panel show Outnumbered, for instance, Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany — now a Fox News star — and anchor Harris Faulkner felt that the mainstream press and the president’s political opponents just didn’t understand his brilliant dealmaking skills.
“He means what he says. And he says, ‘Well, I don’t want to be a jokester or a wise guy.’ No one thinks he’s kidding,” Faulkner stated.
“No, it's not a joke, and you are right, it shouldn't be a shock,” McEnany responded. “You know, as I was watching this yesterday, there was this line from Netanyahu that I wish the media would have listened to. He said, looking at President Trump, ‘You see things that others do not see. You say things that others do not say.’”
She continued: “And then the jaws drop, and then people sit back and realize, ‘Oh, maybe he was right.’ Well, the media didn't listen to that. Those gathered in the room — Kaitlan Collins, others — because I watched through the channels last night, and it was absolute pandemonium, I mean, the freakout was only second to June 27, the day that Joe Biden had that disastrous debate.”
Insisting that the media hadn’t “learned the lesson yet,” the former Trump flack proceeded to tell the press what they should have taken away from Trump’s remarks.
“And the lesson is this, maybe Trump is not trying to take Gaza. Maybe this is a grand part of a negotiation to get Iran to come to the table, to get Iran to hold back the proxies, to get Iran to stop its nuclear warfare on the world,” she said. “Maybe that's it. My lesson to the media, this one line I wish they would take — President Trump is playing four-dimensional chess, you all are playing checkers.”
“If they even have a game board,” Faulkner quipped in response.
