Trump meets with Jordan’s king as he pushes Gaza takeover plan

The United States will take and hold Gaza while Palestinians there move to Jordan and Egypt, President Donald Trump said Tuesday during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, doubling down on a plan that would be politically destabilizing for that leader as the president warned Hamas that “all bets are off” if it does not release all remaining hostages by Saturday.

The Oval Office conversation was Trump’s first visit with an Arab leader since moving back into the White House, and it was a measure of his unwillingness to budge on his desire for a U.S. takeover of Gaza. Although Trump’s tone was friendly Tuesday, his message was almost sure to kindle a blaze for Abdullah at home, where taking a fresh influx of Palestinian refugees would be politically destabilizing.

It was Trump’s latest gambit as he attempted to bluster through the Gaza conflict with a sweep of ideas, some of which international officials have warned would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing if Palestinians in Gaza were forced off their land involuntarily. Trump’s demand that Hamas release all its hostages by Saturday was quickly taken up Tuesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that the Gaza ceasefire would end Saturday if the captives weren’t returned.

It wasn’t clear whether Netanyahu, like Trump, was demanding the immediate release of all the hostages, or just the three who were supposed to be freed next as part of the ceasefire deal, which envisions a gradual release of hostages in exchange for Israel freeing Palestinian prison inmates. Resuming hostilities in Gaza would be a major setback to efforts to resolve the conflict there.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump repeatedly asserted that the United States would take over Gaza – but again refused to specify how.

“We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it,” he told reporters. Asked how the United States would claim the Palestinian territory, Trump cited “U.S. authority.”

The Jordanian king tried hard not to be pulled into the discussion, wary of alienating a U.S. leader who greenlights at least $1.5 billion in aid for Jordan every year. But with the eyes of his own nation upon him, Abdullah also could not acquiesce to Trump’s demand to take in Gazans.

Any response to taking Gaza refugees would need to be multilateral and not rest solely on Jordan, the king said.

“This is something that we as Arabs will be coming to the United States with something that we’re going to talk about later,” Abdullah said.

Later he was more forceful: “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” he wrote on X after the meeting.

He said the focus must be on finding a solution that works for all parties, but he demurred on discussing Trump’s demands, saying he wanted to wait until Egyptians could present their ideas. He also said that Jordan will take in 2,000 children from Gaza, a move that Trump praised and said came as a surprise to U.S. leaders.

But peace efforts seemed to be slipping rather than advancing, as both Trump and Netanyahu warned that the war would resume Saturday should Hamas not release hostages.

“They want to play tough guys, but we’ll see how tough they are,” Trump said, declining to specify what actions he would take.

A day earlier, Trump demanded that Hamas release all its hostages, “not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two.” The slow pace of releases is built into the structure of the deal.

Netanyahu said in an address Tuesday that Israel will “gather forces inside and around the Gaza Strip” in preparation to resume the war if hostages held by Hamas are not returned Saturday.

Hamas said Monday that it will delay the hostage release “until further notice,” accusing Israeli forces of ceasefire violations, including Israeli shelling and gunfire in Gaza, along with an insufficient flow of aid.

Egypt, whose foreign minister met with senior Trump officials in Washington on Monday, has proposed a plan that it wants to become a unified Arab position. It calls for the formation of a committee of Palestinian technocrats, with no connection to any of the parties in the region, to run Gaza and oversee reconstruction projects with security provided by trained Palestinian police.

It differs from other Arab plans that have been more in line with that proposed by the Biden administration to turn Gaza governance over to the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority.

The 16-month war in Gaza started after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage. It has led to the deaths of more than 47,000 Gaza residents, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

Trump on Tuesday continued to talk about his approach to a Gaza takeover as a real estate deal, invoking his decades as a developer.

“I think it’s going to be something that’s going to be magnificent for the Palestinians. … They’re going to be in love with it, too,” Trump said. “I did very well with real estate. I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love.”

He said that he didn’t need to threaten to cut off aid to Jordan and Egypt to persuade them to take in Gaza’s residents, even though the leaders of both countries have expressed opposition to the idea.

“We do, we contribute a lot of money to Jordan and to Egypt, by the way, a lot to both, but I don’t have to threaten that. I think we’re above that,” Trump said.

Jordan is a long-standing American ally, heavily dependent on U.S. aid and also a friendly host to U.S. intelligence agencies operating in the region. But over the past week as Trump has pushed his plan, Abdullah’s options have looked increasingly impossible.

The Hashemite kingdom is already about half Palestinian, having taken in waves of refugees over generations of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Any further influx would probably destabilize Jordan’s already shaky economy and political situation.

Defying Trump could risk the patronage of Jordan’s major supporter. Reflecting Abdullah’s tricky situation, the king was keeping a low profile during his trip to Washington, trying to avoid moments where he could be twisted into taking a public position on the issue.

“The king has an impossible circle to square,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for the State Department who is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “He needs to find a way to say no to Trump elegantly and in a way that doesn’t fundamentally undermine his bilateral relationship.”

Since unveiling his surprise plan for Gaza following a meeting with Netanyahu last week, Trump has doubled and tripled down on it, despite subordinates’ efforts to partly walk it back by saying any displacement of Palestinians would be temporary.

Trump, instead, has said that the Palestinians in Gaza would not be allowed back because their new homes elsewhere would be so attractive.

“We think people are going to be very happy and thrilled,” Trump said Tuesday.

The idea is explosive for a long list of reasons, first and foremost because many of Gaza’s residents have no interest in abandoning their land. Critics have declared that any forced expulsion would meet the definition of ethnic cleansing. Gaza has about 2.2 million residents.

Jordanian leaders, meanwhile, have been involved for more than in a year in a painstaking effort to restore peace to Gaza and to push for an eventual Palestinian state – a step that would be imperiled if Palestinians are permanently moved out of Gaza.

If Trump cut off funding to Jordan, the kingdom would have to turn elsewhere. Saudi Arabia is one potential backer, although the two countries have a tense history. Some Jordanians have also suggested that Russia or China could step in – a development that would be a setback for U.S. efforts to curtail their global influence.

Some Middle East experts have struggled to understand Trump’s broader strategy in his vow to take over Gaza, if there is one.

“In one fell swoop, he’s tethered the United States to a proposal which at best is voluntary-slash-forced transfer and, worst, ethnic cleansing,” Miller said. “He’s undermined relations with the Egyptians and the Jordanians. He’s validated the fantasies of the Israeli right wing, and he sent a signal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] that, you know, hey, I can announce the fact that I’m taking over territory X without any justification now.”