Take Trump's Gaza threat seriously, because Republicans won't stop him | Opinion
Trump is saying something that is far more extreme than anyone in the Republican Party seemed to suggest before, but Republicans are clearly going to go along with whatever he says.
President Donald Trump said he was going to be a dictator for "one day" on the campaign trail, and Republicans gaslighted us, saying obviously he was joking.
It's starting to seem like he wasn't exaggerating.
On Tuesday night, Trump stood beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a White House news conference and announced he wanted to "take over" the Gaza Strip, a move that would upend decades of precedence for relations in the Middle East and almost certainly lead to retaliation from neighboring countries.
"We'll own it," he said. "Level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area."
He also threatened to displace the Palestinian people who live there to realize his vision of creating “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
It’s Trump at peak form, a man who has so much authority and wealth that he believes he can just buy a piece of land that has been fought over for generations. It arrives in the midst of turmoil within the federal government as Trump implements his agenda. It’s terrifying to witness.
My question is, will Democrats do something to stop him? Will anybody? He's sounding a little like a dictator.
Gaza ceasefire is fragile. This won't help.
Trump is the president who is supposed to oversee the second and third phases of the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. This declaration threatens to upend them.
"Any ideas of this kind are capable of igniting the region," one Hamas official told Reuters.
Even though the White House has now walked back some of these claims, I have a hard time believing there isn't a plan to launch us into a wider war. And tweaking Trump's unhinged messaging is something Republicans consistently do while he carries on with that message. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt didn't rule out the possibility of military action in her Wednesday briefing.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Republican Party "will stand with the president on this initiative."
All Americans should be taking this threat seriously, and should take into consideration how Trump’s claims could increase tensions between the United States and other countries in the region. At a minimum, we should all consider how this will impact the ceasefire agreement that Trump is supposed to oversee.
Trump is saying something far more extreme than anyone in the Republican Party seemed to suggest prior to this, but Republicans are clearly going to go along with whatever he says.
Democrats need to speak out. Republicans won't.
For nearly a year, I have viewed the war in Gaza through the lens of my peers – mostly older Generation Z and millennials. I have heard and seen ‒ in conversation, on Instagram stories and in X posts ‒ the outpouring of emotion over what is happening overseas. They have protested, voted and are outraged.
There is also a certain subsect of my peers who say nothing at all. Some of them are more traditional liberal voters who, I presume, are conflicted on the situation we have witnessed in the Middle East.
Those people will follow the Democrats’ lead.
If Democrats have any sense of moral clarity, they will take a strong stance on Gaza now. There is no more hedging to be done; Trump is threatening an ethnic cleansing.
Some Democrats, thankfully, are speaking out.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who is Palestinian American, noted Trump was "calling for ethnic cleansing" and later called the proposal “fanatical bulls‑‑‑.”
Others stressed the importance of keeping the United States out of another war in the Middle East.
"It is something that will deeply destabilize the region and it will create a necessity to put American boots on the ground,” New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told reporters on Wednesday. “Something that President Trump promised he would not do. And so it is harmful, it is destabilizing and it goes back on his promises. I do not think this is something the American people will support and I stand strongly against it.”
There still isn't full party support for the Palestinian people's right to exist in Gaza, but it is a start.
Republicans are clearly doing whatever Trump wants. We’ve seen this in the number of questionable Cabinet appointees who are likely to sail through their Senate vote. We can put some faith in the courts, but that will take years. People are terrified now.
There are supposed to be checks and balances in government to stop an executive from having total authority. Someone is supposed to be stopping this, or at the very least calling it into question. Republicans should, at the very least, be taking a stand against sending American troops into what could be a new war. Instead, they're trying to write it off as an exaggeration.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno