June 16, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and renewed his insistence that Gaza could be emptied of all residents, controlled by the U.S., and redeveloped as a tourist area — a plan that could likely only work if the Arab nation agrees to accept more refugees.
Trump and Abdullah met in the Oval Office, where the president suggested he wouldn't withhold U.S. aid to Jordan or other Arab nations like Egypt if they don't agree to dramatically increase the number of people from Gaza they take in.
“I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that," Trump said.
Abdullah was asked repeatedly about Trump's audacious plan to remake the Middle East, but didn't make substantive comments on it, nor the idea that his country could accept large numbers of new refugees from Gaza.
“I finally see somebody that can take us across the finish line to bring stability, peace, and prosperity to all of us in the region,” the king said in his statement at the top of the meeting.
In comments to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump also repeated suggestions that the U.S. could come to control Gaza, but he said that it wouldn't require committing American funds.
“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it," Trump said of U.S. control in Gaza. He suggested that the redeveloped area could have new hotels, office buildings, and houses, "and we’ll make it exciting.”
“I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it,” Trump, who built a New York real estate empire that catapulted him to fame, said of Gaza's residents, while also insisting that he personally would not be involved in development.
Additionally, Trump used the meeting to renew his suggestions that a tenuous ceasefire between Hamas and Israel could be canceled if the terror group doesn't release all of the remaining hostages it is holding by midday on Saturday. Trump first made that suggestion on Monday, though he insisted then that the ultimate decision lies with Israel.
“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally," Trump said of Hamas. "They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”
Jordan is home to more than 2 million Palestinians and, along with other Arab states, has flatly rejected Trump's plan to relocate civilians from Gaza. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said last week that his country’s opposition to Trump’s idea was “firm and unwavering.”
Besides concerns about jeopardizing the long-held goals of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Egypt and Jordan have privately raised security concerns about welcoming large numbers of additional refugees into their countries even temporarily.
He is the third foreign leader to hold an in-person meeting with Trump since his Jan. 20 inauguration.
