Senior Trump administration officials soften the president's proposal of taking over the Gaza Strip: 'He doesn't want to send troops'

A day after President Donald Trump dropped a geopolitical bombshell about taking over the Gaza Strip to "rebuild" it and make it habitable, proposing a mass migration of Gazan citizens to nearby territories such as Egypt or Jordan, the Trump administration's own senior officials softened the U.S. leader's words.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the most senior federal government official to publicly interpret Trump's proposal, which, during the press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was quite clear: the U.S. must take Gaza in a "long-term" project so that it becomes a place where not just "a specific group of people, but for everybody" can live.

"The only thing President Trump has done — very generously, in my view — is offer the United States’ willingness to step in, clear the debris, clean the place up from all the destruction," including unexploded bombs, "so that then people can move back in," Rubio, who is making his first international tour of Central America said. 

Rubio was joined by Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, who stated that Trump does not plan, at least for the time being, to send U.S. troops to Gaza.

"The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza," Leavitt said, who, like nearly all Republicans since Tuesday, did not comment on how the United States could take over Gaza without sending soldiers.

“The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza for the rebuilding of this effort. Again, it’s a demolition site right now. It’s not a livable place for any human being. And I think it’s actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions,” she added.

Instead, Leavitt said President Trump would meet with other regional leaders to discuss the next steps for the Gaza Strip.

At the moment, three Arab countries, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (a key U.S. ally in the region), have publicly rejected Trump's proposal, citing the "violations" of international law that an eventual "displacement of the Palestinian people" from the enclave would entail. These countries have also positioned themselves in favor of the "two-state solution," a proposal that has become increasingly unfeasible and complex.

However, Trump claimed Tuesday that some Middle East leaders "love" the idea of the U.S. rebuilding Gaza.

There are conflicting positions in the U.S., especially in the Republican Party. While some Republican senators have publicly said that the president's words suggest a negotiating strategy to find a solution that would ensure peace in the troubled region and satisfy Israel, Washington's main ally, others rejected the idea because it does not prioritize the United States and would significantly drain resources.

In fact, Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy for the Middle East, had a closed-door lunch on Capitol Hill with Republican senators and made it clear that Trump "doesn’t want to put any U.S. troops on the ground, and he doesn’t want to spend any U.S. dollars at all" in Gaza, according to Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, one of the lawmakers who opposed the president's proposal Tuesday.

The person who supported Trump's unexpected plan was House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said the proposal "surprised" everyone but was also "widely applauded."