US Contractor's Proposal Exposes Trump Gaza Plan as 'Vehicle for Mass Exploitation'

A reportedly withdrawn proposal from the US government contractor behind the "Alligator Alcatraz" concentration camp for immigrants in Floridawe to secure a seven-year monopoly on new trucking in the Gaza Strip was blasted Monday by critics accusing President Donald Trump of genocide profiteering.

The Guardian reported in December that Gothams LLC submitted a plan to the White House that would have guaranteed the monopoly and 300% profits from a contract to provide trucking and logistics for Trump's so-called Board of Peace in the obliterated Palestinian exclave.

The Austin-based company was previously known for being a leading recipient of no-bid contracts in Texas and for securing a $33 million deal to help run the South Florida Detention Facility, better known as Alligator Alcatraz, where detainees and human rights groups have described abuses including torture, inadequate and maggot-infested food, inability to bathe, flooding, and denial of religious practice.

Although Gothams LLC founder Michael Michelsen told the Guardian that he had withdrawn the Gaza proposal due to security concerns, critics contend that the story shows how Trump's Board of Peace is, as Center for International Policy vice president for government affairs Dylan Williams put it, "a vehicle for massive exploitation and corruption."

"Trump’s family and associates are poised to make billions at the expense of US taxpayers and Palestinian rights and lives," Williams said.

Ken Fairfax, who served as US ambassador to Kazakhstan during the Obama administration, said Monday on Bluesky, "As Trump continues to spread chaos, the constant graft by him and his buddies remains the only entirely predictable aspect of his rule."

"A built-in 300% minimum profit margin plus a guarantee of an absolute monopoly on all trucking for seven years," Fairfax added. "All for Trump's cronies."

US weapons-makers made billions of dollars arming Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, and sources told the Guardian that US contractors are now vying for a share of the estimated $70 billion Gaza reconstruction action.

“Everybody and their brother is trying to get a piece of this,” said one contractor familiar with the process. “People are treating this like another Iraq or Afghanistan. And they’re trying to get, you know, rich off of it.”

One year ago, Trump said that the United States would "take over" and "own" Gaza, which the president vowed to transform into the "Riviera of the Middle East." He later walked back his remarks, even as plans for US domination of the strip circulated.

Private equity billionaire and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner recently unveiled plans for a "New Gaza" replete with offshore fossil fuel production, luxury apartments, and industrial parks.

"It could be a hope, it could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive, have great employment," Kushner said last month as Israeli forces continued their assault on Gaza that has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023.

While Gothams LLC may have withdrawn its proposal for the trucking contract, Chris Vaneks, a partner at the company, is still involved in the project, according to records reviewed by the Guardian. A Gothams spokesperson told the newspaper that Vanek “has not had any discussions regarding financing, investment, or returns, and any suggestion otherwise would be inaccurate."

Addressing Gothams' initial proposal, Charles Tiefer, an expert on federal contracting law who was a member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Guardian on Monday that “there’s never been a US government contract that had triple returns on capital, not in 200 years."

“Having spent three years looking at contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan," he added, "this looks like highway robbery.”