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President Donald Trump's son-in-law and former senior adviser, Jared Kushner, once described the Arab-Israeli conflict as "nothing more than a real estate dispute" and talked about the potential beauty of the Gaza Strip's Mediterranean waterfront.
Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, this week called for subterranean surveys and master building plans, with special care needed to assess how underground tunnels dug by Hamas have weakened building foundations in the war-torn territory.
Most of the world views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of a centuries-long battle over religion and territory - and as an intractable diplomatic problem. Trump and his inner circle for years have eyed Gaza as something entirely different: a real estate opportunity.
On Tuesday, the president took that view to a striking new level, announcing a plan for the United States to take responsibility for redeveloping Gaza, complete with a new branding: "the Riviera of the Middle East."
Even though the idea is unlikely to be implemented, it provides a window into the president's passion for his previous occupation. A former developer of skyscrapers, resorts and golf clubs around the world, Trump has reduced one of the most enduring political conflicts in recent history to a construction challenge.
"They're living under fallen concrete that's very dangerous and very precarious," Trump said Tuesday as he unveiled his concept of U.S. involvement. "They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony."
Trump's proposal has been met with widespread condemnation among U.S. allies, who accused the president of reducing a longtime political quagmire and humanitarian crisis to a land deal. His aides moved quickly to explain that the president believes his idea would be good for Gazans, who have lived through more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment that leveled much of the 141-square-mile strip on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. Launched after a deadly October 2023 attack into southern Israel in which Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage, the assault on Gaza has killed at least 47,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the next day. "President Trump is an outside-of-the-box thinker and a visionary leader who solves problems that many others, especially in this city, claim are unsolvable."
Still, Trump had not briefed many senior White House officials about key details of his plan - that the United States would take ownership of the territory and that U.S. troops could be deployed - before outlining them during a news conference Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the matter.
He did have a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting ahead of the news conference, and Trump officials quickly reworked some of his introductory remarks, fully aware of the international headlines they would soon trigger, the people said.
The concept was eyebrow-raising, even for a president who has said he would reclaim the Panama Canal, take Greenland from Denmark and try to make Canada the 51st state.
Some close to Trump view his latest concept less as one he believes will fully come to fruition and more as a brazen negotiating gambit to propel reaction and shake loose a region that has been diplomatically paralyzed for years.
"I see it more in the art of the deal lens. He's applying a real estate developer's mindset - clearing the rubble and turning Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East fits a pattern," said a person close to the Trump administration, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer more candid views. "It's interesting to behold the way his mind works sometimes because he dispenses entirely from historical and cultural and political dimensions and jumps right to an opportunity to build a vacation destination."
Others see it as a diplomatic gift for Netanyahu, who may receive extra latitude from far-right partners who have demanded that he resume the war rather than pull Israeli troops out from Gaza as envisioned in the second phase of a ceasefire agreement.
Trump has not addressed what authority Washington has to rebuild a foreign territory, or what he would do if Palestinians opted not to leave their homeland to make way for redevelopment. Leavitt said Wednesday that no U.S. tax dollars would be used, leaving open the question of who would foot the bill.
Trump has repeatedly said that he believes Egypt and Jordan will agree to house Palestinian refugees, even though leaders of those countries have rejected the idea. Another priority, a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, appears imperiled by the plan. Trump will meet next week with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
It is unclear how closely Trump may have consulted with Kushner, and who else he consulted before announcing his proposal. When asked, a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity responded, "President Trump has had discussions with many people and advisers on a wide range of issues."
Kushner has shown an interest in Gaza for years, crafting a 181-page plan released in January 2020 called "Peace to Prosperity."
That plan - a broad vision to resolve the conflict - included an effort to promote the "unique and exciting characteristics" in the West Bank and Gaza that could attract tourists to the region with an infusion of development and marketing.
"Over forty kilometers of coastline in Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea could develop into a modern metropolitan city overlooking the beach, drawing from examples like Beirut, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, and Tel Aviv," the report said.
Kushner continued promoting the concept years later, including in an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman recorded on Oct. 9, 2023 - two days after the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza - and again at a February 2024 event at Harvard.
"I think from Israel's perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up," he said at the Harvard event.
Kushner also predicted that different Arab countries would be willing to fund it, with the incentive of an investment payoff.
He said civilians from Rafah should be moved to Egypt, and he floated the idea of relocating them temporarily to the Negev, a large desert region in southern Israel.
"But in addition to that, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev. I would try to move people in there," he said. "I think that's a better option, so you can go in and finish the job."
A person close to Kushner said he has continued to talk to acquaintances about developing the Gaza Strip with financing from Persian Gulf countries, and that the idea appeals to Trump's interest in real estate.
The person also noted that Witkoff, a longtime New York developer, also has extensive experience in real estate projects funded by energy-rich Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
On Tuesday, standing outside the White House, Witkoff described the destruction in Gaza and the long rebuilding time frame.
"When the president talks about cleaning it out, he talks about making it habitable. And this is a long-range plan," he said. "They've dug tunnels underneath there that have basically degraded the stone that would form foundations. We have to examine that. You do it with borings. You do it with subterranean surveys."
Trump teased some of his thinking on Jan. 20 as he was signing executive orders hours after being sworn in again as president. Asked if he planned to help rebuild Gaza, he said, "I might."
"You know, Gaza is interesting," the president said. "It's a phenomenal location. On the sea, the best weather, you know, everything's good. It's like some beautiful things could be done with it, but it's very interesting."
He did not offer a vision on how the territory would be governed.
"You certainly can't have the people that were there," he said, seeming to refer to Hamas. "Most of them are dead, by the way. Most of them are dead, but they didn't exactly run it well. Run viciously and badly. You can't have that."
Throughout much of his career, Trump's outlook has been that of a real estate developer following in his father's footsteps.
He amassed property in Atlantic City in the early 1980s, attempting to redevelop undervalued sites with glitz and glamour. He built towers in Manhattan and Las Vegas. His gambles at times did not pay off, resulting in bankruptcy filings and lawsuits. At other times, his brash plans were met with reward.
Many Middle East experts say that Trump's plan is so vague that it's impossible to know what policy, if any, would come of it. Hamas fighters would target any U.S. personnel on the ground, they say. Many Gazans don't want to move. Arab nations don't want to take them in. A permanent takeover of Gaza would imperil an eventual Palestinian state.
Trump's real estate lens toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long raised eyebrows - including from former foes who are now his subordinates, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
"The Palestinians are not a real estate deal, Donald," Rubio said at a 2016 debate when the two men ran against each other in the Republican presidential primaries.
On Wednesday, he said of the president's proposal: "It's a unique offer, one that - no other country in the world has stepped up and made an offer. But I think it's one people need to think about seriously. It was not meant as a hostile move."
Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who has frequently discussed Israel with Trump, said he was surprised by his comments but said they should not be "rejected out of hand."
"He knows how to deal with demolition sites. The analogy isn't perfect, obviously, and the idea as stated is not written in stone. But it's a conversation starter," Dershowitz said.
Trump has a booster in Netanyahu. The president has expressed only muted concern about Netanyahu's handling of the military campaign. It's a marked shift after more than a year of being chastised by Biden administration officials.
Netanyahu's body language with Trump was clear: At the news conference in which the U.S. leader floated the takeover idea for the first time publicly, Netanyahu grinned. He smiled. He offered some compliments.
"You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say," Netanyahu said to Trump. "And then, after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads. And they say, ‘You know, he's right.'"