Trump plans to 'take over' Gaza, expel Palestinians & build real estate his family could profit from

Donald Trump plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, saying "the US will take over the Gaza Strip... We'll own it". His son-in-law Jared Kushner invests in Israeli companies profiting on settlements

When Donald Trump campaigned for president in 2024, he told the Israeli-American Council that, during his first administration, "I was the best friend Israel ever had".

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees. In a press conference at the White House, Netanyahu told Trump, "You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House".

Since returning for his second term as US president, Trump has been as pro-Israel -- and as anti-Palestinian -- as he could possibly be.

Trump signed an executive order calling to deport international students who protest Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people.

The US president has also attacked the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, accusing the Israeli leader of carrying out crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Trump imposed sanctions on the ICC, and he invited Netanyahu to the White House on 4 February.

Standing next to the Israeli prime minister, Trump announced that he plans to expel all Palestinians from Gaza and "take over" the territory.

"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it", Trump said.

This proposal flagrantly violates international law, and would constitute a blatant act of ethnic cleansing.

Nevertheless, the Trump family could profit from the colonization of Palestinian land.

The US president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has significant investments in Israeli firms that profit from the expansion of illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

Trump and Kushner eye "valuable" Gaza "waterfront property"

Trump and Kushner have both publicly proposed ethnically cleansing Palestinians, expelling them from Gaza, and building luxury real estate on the Mediterranean Sea.

Trump hinted at this in his press conference with Netanyahu at the White House on 4 February, stating, "Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job. Do something different. [Palestinians] just can't go back. If you go back, it's going to end up the same way it has for 100 years".

The US president made similar comments in a press conference on the day of his inauguration, on 20 January.

When asked about reconstruction in Gaza, Trump said, "You know, Gaza is interesting. It's a phenomenal location, on the sea, best weather. You know, everything is good. It's like, some beautiful things could be done with it. It's very interesting. Some fantastic things could be done with Gaza".

This idea was floated a year before, in February 2024, by Kushner. In an interview at Harvard University, Trump's son-in-law salivated over "Gaza's waterfront property".

"Gaza's waterfront property, it could be very valuable to, if people would focus on kind of building up, you know, livelihoods", Kushner said.

He openly proposed that Israel should ethnically cleanse Palestinians.

"I think from Israel's perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up", Kushner stressed.

Kushner and Saudi Arabia invest in Israel

Kushner served as a senior advisor to Trump in his first administration, overseeing US foreign policy in West Asia (the Middle East), especially regarding Israel.

Mere months after the Trump administration left office in 2021, Kushner founded a Florida-based investment company called Affinity Partners. Saudi Arabia promptly announced that its sovereign wealth fund would invest $2 billion in Kushner's firm.

The Saudi monarchy told Kushner that its money should specifically be invested in Israeli companies.

A few days before Trump returned to office in January 2025, Israeli regulators approved a deal in which Kushner's Saudi-backed fund Affinity Partners would double its stake in Phoenix Financial, an Israeli company that has profited from illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

This means that it is not only the Trump family but also the Saudi monarchy that may profit from the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

In fact, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu suggested that, after the US ethnically cleanses indigenous Palestinians from Gaza, they should use Saudi territory to create a state of their own.

Netanyahu gifts Trump a golden pager

While meeting with Trump at the White House on 4 February, Netanyahu gifted the US president a golden pager -- a symbol of a terrorist attack that Israel carried out in Lebanon in September.

A dozen Lebanese civilians were killed in this pager attack, including children. UN experts said the Israeli operation clearly violated international law, and even former CIA Director and US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta admitted it was a "form of terrorism”.

Trump praised the Israeli terror attack as a "great operation", and he accepted with pride the Israeli gift, which had an engraving reading, "To President Donald J. Trump, Our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu".

The US president then gave Netanyahu a signed photo of the two in the White House, with the message, “To Bibi, a great leader”.