King Abdullah II of Jordan privately pulled the brakes on President Donald Trump’s dubious plan to “take over” Gaza and transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” expelling nearly 2 million Palestinians in the process.
“We will have Gaza,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday while King Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan looked on. “It’s a war-torn area. We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it. We’re going to cherish it.”
Privately, Trump had been talking for weeks about taking control of the region and redeveloping it as a tourist destination, the New York Times reported. Last week, he publicly announced the idea during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, drawing immediate condemnation.
When reporters asked King Abdullah about Trump’s proposal on Tuesday, he sidestepped the issue, saying Trump was a force for peace in the region. He also offered to take in sick Palestinian children for treatment. But a statement that he posted on social media after the meeting suggested he was far more direct in private, as the Times first reported.
“I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position,” he wrote in a post on the social media platform X. “Rebuilding Gaza without disrupting the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all.”
Calling the meeting “constructive” and praising Trump for being “instrumental” in securing the Gaza ceasefire, he nevertheless stressed that, “Achieving just peace on the basis of the two-state solution is the way to ensure regional stability.”
A spokesperson for Egypt also posted a statement saying the country wants to “cooperate” with the Trump administration to “achieve a comprehensive and just peace in the region.” That means “ensur[ing] the Palestinian people remain in their homeland,” the statement said.
The technique of appeasing and attempting to placate Trump in public while taking a firmer stand in private is part of the “playbook” Arab leaders have developed for dealing with Trump, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute told the Times.
They “know how to placate Trump—and then work with the serious people on his team who have the job of making sense of his nonsense,” fellow Brian Katulis said.
