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foreign aid
'We'll Own It': Trump Floats US Takeover of Gaza—After Ethnically Cleansing Palestinians
Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that "the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip," which would be emptied of Palestinians.
Feb 04, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will "take over" Gaza after emptying the embattled enclave of nearly all its native Palestinians, sparking a firestorm of criticism that included allegations of intent to commit ethnic cleansing.
Speaking during a press conference with fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump told reporters, "The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too."
"We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings—level it out and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area," Trump continued.
"We're going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something that the entire Middle East could be very proud of," he said, evoking the proposals of varying seriousness to build Jewish-only beachfront communities over the ruins of Gaza.
Doubling down on his January call for the removal of most of Gaza's population to Egypt and Jordan—both of which vehemently rejected the proposal—Trump said that "it would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where [Palestinians] wouldn't want to return."
"Why would they want to return?" asked Trump. "The place has been hell."
Asked how many Palestinians should leave Gaza, Trump replied, "all of them," citing a figure of 1.7-1.8 million Palestinians out of an estimated population of approximately 2.3 million people.
The forced transfer of a population by an occupying power is a war crime, according to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—under which Israel's settler colonies in the occupied West Bank are also illegal.
"I don't think people should be going back to Gaza," Trump continued. "Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative. If they had an alternative, they'd much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that's safe."
Asked if he would deploy U.S. troops to Gaza, Trump said that "we'll do what's necessary. If it's necessary, we'll do that."
Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour responded by affirming that "our country and our home is the Gaza Strip."
"It's part of Palestine," he stressed. "Our homeland is our homeland."
Responding to Trump's remarks, Netanyahu praised his ally's "willingness to puncture conventional thinking" and stand behind Israel.
"[Trump] sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so many attacks against us, so many trials and so many tribulations," Netanyahu told reporters as he stood beside the U.S. leader. "He has a different idea, and I think it's worth paying attention to this. We're talking about it. He's exploring it with his people, with his staff."
"I think it's something that could change history," Netanyahu added, "and it's worthwhile really pursuing this avenue."
There is currently a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, where more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment, invasion, and siege have left more than 170,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and more than 2 million others forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened, according to local and international officials and agencies.
Numerous Israeli leaders have advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and the Jewish recolonization of the coastal enclave, most of whose inhabitants are the descendants of Palestinians forcibly expelled from other parts of Palestine during the establishment of the modern state of Israel in the late 1940s. Palestinians ethnically cleansed during what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, have since been denied their U.N.-guaranteed right of return to their homeland.
Last November, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon acknowledged that the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza was underway. Other Israeli political and military leaders have said that the so-called "Generals' Plan"—a strategy to starve and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from northern Gaza—was effectively in progress.
Palestinian-American journalist Ramzy Baroud responded to Trump's remarks in a video posted on social media Tuesday.
"Now, you would say, 'Wait a minute, Trump seems to be really, really determined, his heart is set on ethnically cleansing Palestinians, and this subject is back on the table,'" Baroud said. "The question is, whose table? It's not on the table of the Palestinian people."
Earlier Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and continuing the freeze on funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which Israel has baselessly
accused of being a terrorist organization.
In a fact sheet viewed by multiple media outlets, the White House asserted that UNHRC "has not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations."
"The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings," the White House continued. "In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organization passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined."
UNHRC spokesperson Pascal Sim noted Tuesday that the U.S. has been an observer state, not a UNHRC member, since January 1, and according to U.N. rules, it cannot "technically withdraw from an intergovernmental body that is no longer part of."
The UNRWA funding pause is based on Israeli claims—reportedly extracted from Palestinian prisoners in an interrogation regime rife with torture and abuse—that a dozen of the agency's more than 13,000 workers in Gaza were involved in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. These claims prompted numerous nations including the United States to cut off funding for UNRWA last year. The U.S. had been UNRWA's biggest benefactor, providing $300-400 million annually to the lifesaving organization.
UNRWA fired nine employees in response to Israel's claim, even as the agency admitted there was no evidence linking the staffers to October 7. Faced with this lack of evidence, the European Union and countries including Japan, Germany, Canada, and Australia reinstated funding for UNRWA. Last March, then-U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill prohibiting American funding for the agency.
Israeli lawmakers have also
banned UNRWA from operating in Israel, severely hampering the agency's ability to carry out its mission throughout Palestine, including in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
According to the most recent UNRWA situation report, at least 272 of the agency's workers have been killed by Israeli forces, which since October 2023 have bombed numerous schools, shelters, and other facilities used by the agency.
William Deere, the director of UNRWA's Washington, D.C. office, toldPBS earlier this week that "there is no alternative to UNRWA."
"UNRWA performs a unique function in the U.N. system," Deere explained. "We are a direct service provider. We run... a healthcare network, we run an education system, we provide relief and social services."
As U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said last month, "UNRWA has been carrying out activities in the occupied Palestinian territory for more than 70 years... and has thus accumulated unparalleled experience in providing assistance that is tailored to the specific needs of Palestine refugees."
Trump's executive order preceded his meeting with Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court after it issued arrest warrants for him and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The tribunal also issued a warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
The U.S. president's directives also followed his January freeze on foreign aid to countries except for Israel and Egypt, and his plan to shut down the United States Agency for International Development.
This article and its headline have been updated to include Trump's call for U.S. ownership of Gaza.
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Amid 'Illegal' USAID Takeover, Dems Say There's No 'Fourth Branch of Government Called Elon Musk'
"Just like he didn't create USAID, he's not gonna destroy it," said Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Feb 03, 2025
Several Democratic members of Congress were denied entry to the headquarters of the United States Agency for International Development on Monday, after giving a press conference on the attempted takeover of USAID by President Donald Trump and his adviser, billionaire businessman Elon Musk.
Federal law enforcement officers blocked the delegation, including Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), from entering the offices. Beyer later said the moves were "illegal and corrupt and we will keep fighting it."
The Democrats had just finished speaking about the events of this past weekend, when employees of the Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE), the advisory body Trump appointed Musk to lead, demanded that security officials at USAID hand over confidential files. The officials were placed on administrative leave when they refused, along with dozens of other senior federal workers at the agency.
On Monday, as the Democratic delegation prepared to respond to the Trump administration's actions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he was now the acting director of USAID, which assists with disaster recovery, poverty alleviation, and other foreign aid operations.
The Democrats had a simple message at the press conference, where more than 100 demonstrators gathered holding signs reading, "USAID Must Be Saved" and "Today USAID. What's Next?" The agency was created by an act of Congress in 1961, when the Foreign Assistance Act was passed, and only Congress can dismantle it.
"Elon Musk, you didn't create USAID, the U.S. Congress did for the American people," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) "And just like he didn't create USAID, he's not gonna destroy it."
"Just like the president... cannot impound the money of the people," added Raskin, "we don't have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk, and that's going to become real clear."
Raskin: "Elon Musk, you may have illegally seized power over the financial payments systems of the Treasury, but you don't control the money of the American people. The US Congress does that under Article 1 of the Constitution ... we don't have a fourth branch of government… pic.twitter.com/aqdY7Q4OQW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 3, 2025
The members of Congress were refused entry to the agency headquarters after staffers were advised on Monday morning to stay out of the building, where yellow police tape blocked the lobby.
As Common Dreamsreported, Musk said Monday that he had checked with President Donald Trump "a few times" about the future of USAID, and the president allegedly directed him to shut it down.
Raskin condemned "murmurings of support for this outrageous, scandalous, illegal maneuver" that he said he had heard from some Republican colleagues, with supporters saying the administration is simply "evaluating" the agency's work.
"I've heard from multiple constituents working in USAID that they have removed all evaluations from the USAID website," said Raskin. "This has nothing to do with evaluations, this is about termination and obliteration of the major foreign aid programs of the United States of America."
At a separate press briefing, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) told reporters Monday morning that security guards at USAID had "been given specific orders to prevent employees of USAID from entering the building today."
"I went inside and tried to speak to the acting administrator [Jason] Gray," he said, referring to the official who Rubio has reportedly replaced. "Unfortunately I was not able to meet with him, and I'm going to continue to try... I want to hear straight from him, are these the orders that he gave? ...This is no way to govern, this is no way to treat public servants, and this is no way for us to conduct foreign policy as a country."
Before attempting to enter USAID, Beyer said Musk's takeover of the agency is "a case of the very worst among us attacking the best of us," noting that agency employees work to prevent the spread of infectious disease around the world and in the U.S., among other foreign aid missions.
"What Trump and Musk have done is not only wrong, it is illegal," said Beyer. "Stopping this will require action by the courts and Republicans to show up and show courage and stand up for our country."
"I'm urging my fellow Democrats to use every legislative tool we have at our disposal to slow down and stop this crime from succeeding," he added.
After being blocked from entering USAID, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) toldThe New York Times that the lawmakers were working to secure an injunction to block Musk's order to keep the offices closed.
With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, the Democrats' path to fighting Musk and Trump over USAID is likely through the court system. Last week, the Office of Management and Budget's order for all federal grants and loans to be frozen was temporarily blocked by two federal judges.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), also part of the delegation that went to USAID, emphasized that the takeover was "a bluff."
"They are counting on some sense of inevitability," he said. "It is a harmful killer bluff, but they don't have the law on their side, and so every civil servant, every contractor, every individual who is scared, stand in solidarity with each other."
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Trump Admin Forces Out USAID Official Who Refused to Comply With 'Illegal' Purge
A career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development said he was placed on leave after refusing an order to "violate the due process of our employees."
Jan 31, 2025
A career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development informed his colleagues Thursday that he was placed on administrative leave after refusing to carry out what he described as an unlawful purge directive handed down by the agency's front office and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
Nicholas Gottlieb, director of employee and labor relations at USAID, wrote in an email to other agency workers that he was "instructed... to violate the due process of our employees by issuing immediate termination notices to a group of employees."
"I refused and have provided Acting Administrator [Jason] Gray with written notification of my refusal," Gottlieb continued. "I have recommended in that written notification that his office cease and desist from further illegal activity."
Gottlieb went on to write that he was placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, after declining to carry out the termination directive.
Gottlieb's removal comes days after the Trump administration placed dozens of senior USAID officials on leave, accusing them—without providing any specific details—of attempting to "circumvent" the president's sweeping freeze on U.S. foreign aid. (Military assistance to Israel is among the few exemptions.)
According toThe Washington Post, Gottlieb on Thursday sent an email to the officials placed on administrative leave saying he had"reviewed the materials that served as the purported basis for your placement in this status" and "found no evidence that you engaged in misconduct.”
The aid freeze has led U.S.-funded aid programs around the world, including some that provide life-saving humanitarian assistance, to begin "firing staff and shutting down," The Associated Pressreported earlier this week.
"The aid community is grappling with just how existential this aid suspension is," said Oxfam America president Abby Maxman, whom AP described as "one of the few aid officials willing to speak publicly about the impact of the freeze following Trump administration warnings not to."
Citing current and former USAID officials, Reutersreported earlier this week that the ongoing purge at the agency appears "designed to silence any dissent" over Trump's "plans to dramatically reshape U.S. foreign aid."
While the Trump administration's assault on government agencies and officials has been far-reaching, USAID has emerged as a top target of White House officials.
Stephen Miller, the far-right extremist serving as White House deputy chief of staff, singled out USAID during a CNNappearance earlier this week, claiming without evidence that 98% of the agency's workforce "either donated to Kamala Harris or another left-wing candidate."
Vox's Dylan Matthews wrote Thursday that USAID is "worth paying attention to, both because it does important work that belies its size and status, and because it's become an early case study in how the second Trump administration plans to dismantle major parts of the federal bureaucracy."
"Perhaps the most important function of the shock-and-awe campaign of funding freeze and mass administrative leaves has been to put the rest of USAID's workforce on notice," Matthews wrote. "The USAID staff I spoke with were mostly unwilling to be quoted due to fear of retaliation, and all of them described an atmosphere of uncertainty, unease, and omnipresent fear that one could lose one's job at any moment."
"This is not an environment in which one can imagine an agency of any kind operating effectively," he added.
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