Trump’s real-estate instincts clash with his America First worldview

When a real-estate developer becomes the US president, don’t be surprised if American foreign policy includes a heavy helping of real-estate development.

That’s probably the biggest conclusion to draw from Donald Trump’s stunning proposal for the US to take over Gaza and turn it into a resort for all the people of the world to enjoy – a “Riviera of the Middle East”, in his words.

It also presents the latest iteration of a question that has persisted as long as Trump has been involved at the highest level of American politics.

Should Trump’s Gaza development plan, which includes the resettlement of more than two million Palestinians and US “ownership” of the contested lands be taken literally or seriously? Both, or neither?

Trump’s proposal flies in the face of the deeply held wishes of the Palestinian people and has been summarily rejected by the Arab nations that would have to play an integral part in resettling those displaced from war-torn Gaza.

It has also triggered howls of protest from the international community, as well as the president’s domestic critics in the Democratic Party.

“Developing war-torn land like a Trump golf resort isn’t a peace plan, it’s an insult,” said Democratic Congressman Troy Carter of Louisiana. “Serious leaders pursue real solutions, not real estate deals.”

Even some of Trump’s most steadfast Republican allies have seemed wary of the president’s suggestion that US forces could occupy Gaza, clearing rubble and removing unexploded Israeli ordinance.

“I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza,” Lindsey Graham, who represents South Carolina in the US Senate, said on Wednesday. “I think that might be problematic, but I’ll keep an open mind.”

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was even more blunt.

“I thought we voted for America First,” he wrote on X. “We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”

Paul highlights what has been an apparent contradiction in the early weeks of Trump’s presidency. While Trump has culled US foreign aid and pledged to focus on American domestic concerns, he has also leavened his remarks with talk of American expansionism.

His interest in acquiring Greenland is persistent and, according to administration officials, deadly serious. His talk of making Canada the “51st state” and retaking the Panama Canal is no longer being treated like a joke.

And now Trump, one of the most vocal right-wing critics of the US invasion and reconstruction of Iraq, is suggesting a new Middle East nation-building project.