Donald Trump has said the US is “going to take” Gaza – while casting fresh doubt on the ceasefire in the Palestinian territory following a meeting with the king of Jordan at the White House. Listen to the latest Trump 100 as you scroll.
Tuesday 11 February 2025 19:20, UK
The vast majority of Americans oppose the US taking control of Gaza and displacing the Palestinians who live there.
Some 74% were against the idea, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
This included a majority of Republicans, with 55% opposed and 43% supportive.
By Mark Stone, US correspondent at the White House
President Trump’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, has just stepped out of the West Wing here at the White House and we managed a few words with him.
I asked for his reaction to the fact that the UK has chosen not to apply retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s 25% on all steel and aluminium imports. The EU has suggested it will retaliate.
“We love the UK and if you’re telling me that they have announced they won’t retaliate then that’s the most sensible response to this, because all we’re doing in America here is defending ourselves against this unfair dumping and government subsidisation,” he said.
“Let’s talk about the EU. Billion euros here, three billion euros there. This is what the European Union has been giving out to subsidise their steel industry. This is just fact. That’s a fact. They shouldn’t be doing that. They shouldn’t be doing that.”
He continued: “Governments collectively in Europe and the EU should not be heavily subsidising their steel industries in the midst of a global capacity glut that the EU itself says shouldn’t be in place. So I would say to the EU, look in the mirror first at your own industrial policies that have helped contribute to the problem.”
I also asked him how America plans to keep prices for US consumers low given that the country will still need to rely on imported steel and aluminium (now costing 25% more) until it can get its own manufacturing up to capacity, which will take years. Economists fear domestic prices will go up.
“Surely not,” Navarro says.
“And I’ll tell you why. Because there’s a global glut of steel and aluminium. Huge overcapacity. And what we learned in 2018 [when Trump first introduced tariffs] is the very first thing countries do when we put those tariffs on is lower their prices. We are not worried about that because history is on our side.”
An American detained in Russia for almost four years is leaving its airspace under a deal negotiated by Washington and Moscow, according to national security advisor Mike Waltz.
Pennsylvania school teacher Marc Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug trafficking after half an ounce of prescribed medical marijuana was found in his luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in 2021.
The deal “serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine”, said Waltz.
“By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership.”
Donald Trump says two million is a “very small number of people” to remove from Gaza.
He says he believes there will be “parcels of land” in Jordan, Egypt and “someplace else” where Palestinians will live “happily and very safely”.
“They only want to be in the Gaza Strip because they don’t know anything else, they’ve never had an alternative,” Trump says.
“They are being killed there at levels that nobody has ever seen – no place in the world is as dangerous as the Gaza Strip.”
He claims – contrary to what Gazans have said – that “not one person” wants to stay in Gaza.
Asked to respond to the widespread view among experts in international law that his plan amounts to ethnic cleansing, Trump says: “We are moving them to a beautiful location.”
Speaking at a news conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Donald Trump says the US won’t buy Gaza, it will simply “have it”.
He declines to answer how that would work – and how he can avoid spending US taxes running it.
“We’re going to run it very properly and eventually we’ll have economic development at a very large scale.”
He promises “peace in the Middle East”.
“With the United States in control of that piece of land… you’re going to have stability in the Middle East for the first time.
“The Palestinians, the people who live now in Gaza, will be living beautifully in another location.
“They are going to be living safely – they’re not going to be killed, murdered and having to leave every 10 years.”
Trump adds he is 99% sure he will work out a deal with Egypt.
King Abdullah says Donald Trump can bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East and he will support him to do so.
Asked if he was still considering withholding aid to Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries if they refused to take in people from Gaza – as he had suggested last night – Trump appeared to back off on his previous threat.
“Well I don’t want to say that … we don’t have to threaten that, I do believe we’re above that,” he says.
Asked why Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza, Trump passes the question to the king.
“We have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries” that is being discussed, says King Abdullah.
“I think the point is how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody? And we have to look at the best interests of the US, of the people in the region, and especially to my people of Jordan.”
The king says Jordan will take in 2,000 children with cancer or who are otherwise very unwell “as quickly as possible” and wait for Egypt to present their plan.
Trump says it is a “beautiful gesture”.
In a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Donald Trump is doubling down once again on his plan to take over Gaza.
A reporter puts it to the president that he has said the US would “buy” Gaza.
“We don’t have to buy, there’s nothing to buy,” Trump says.
“It’s a war torn area, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to take it. … Gaza the way it is, civilisation has been wiped out in Gaza. It’s going to be a great economic development.”
Asked under what authority the US can take Gaza, Trump replies “US authority”.
The United Nations’ top investigator on human rights in Palestine has said Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza is illegal under international law and “amounts to ethnic cleansing”.
Turning to the ceasefire, Trump says he did not think Hamas would make a Saturday deadline to release all hostages, putting the Gaza ceasefire deal in jeopardy.
He said Hamas must meet the deadline or “all bets are off”.
Trump also said Palestinians will be able to live safely in a location that is not Gaza.
He has repeatedly said Jordan and Egypt should provide space for them.
As Donald Trump and King Abdullah begin talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued an ultimatum on Gaza echoing the US president’s own.
Yesterday, Trump told reporters that the ceasefire should be cancelled if Hamas does not release all remaining hostages by noon on Saturday.
Netanyahu has just said his security cabinet has voted for the exact same proposal.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will be terminated, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” he said.
“Last night I ordered the IDF to amass forces inside and around the Gaza Strip.”
There are 17 hostages yet to be released from Gaza under this phase of the ceasefire, eight of whom Israel has said are dead.
He added: “We all also welcomed President Trump’s demand for the release of our hostages by Saturday noon, and we all also welcomed the president’s revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza.”
The next handover of three hostages had been scheduled for Saturday, but Hamas has threatened to delay.
The group accused Israel of not holding up its end of the deal by initially delaying the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza, carrying out strikes across the territory and hindering the entry of tents, mobile homes and medical supplies for hospitals.
Donald Trump is meeting King Abdullah at the White House.
The meeting comes at a point of tension between the allies.
Donald Trump believes he can convince Jordan to take in some of the more than two million Palestinians he wants to displace from Gaza, not least by threatening to cut off US aid.
For Jordan, this comes dangerously close to a vision of the country as an alternative Palestinian home that has long been propagated by ultra-nationalist Israelis.
Asked if he is confident he could get King Abdullah on board with this plan, Trump responds “he’s a great man” before ushering him inside.
US correspondent Mark Stone says this is an important meeting for King Abdullah, who will not want to upset Trump.
But at the same time, the king of Jordan will want to firmly communicate his country cannot take in Palestinians from Gaza, says Stone.
“To take in many, many Palestinians into Jordan would fundamentally destabilise his own country,” says Stone.
It would shift the population balance, and potentially export Hamas and its beliefs, he explains.
Hanging over the king, though, is Trump’s threat to cut off aid, which “would also destabilise Jordan”.
There is going to be no news conference or pictures released by the White House, adds Stone.
“They want to control the moment as much as they can – neither side is going to want any language to destabilise what are very, very important talks indeed.”
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