As President Donald Trump dropped his bombshell announcement that the United States should take ownership of Gaza, a hundred hands in the East Room of the White House flew up.
The more than 100 journalists there to cover his press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went into a frenzy.
It was chaos.
There were not enough chairs for all the reporters there to cover the event, so dozens of journalists had crammed into the isles, pushing against one another until they literally hit the wall of the East Room.
And when Trump dropped his bombshell news on Gaza, every reporter in the room pushed forward, spilling into the aisle to crowd in with journalists who got seats, and creating a human mass all trying to get the president’s attention.
Hands waved, people shouted as Trump stood at about 100 feet distance, watching from afar atop a podium, the Israeli and American flags behind him.
‘This is nuts,’ one reporter said.
Reporters at President Donald Trump’s press conference try to get his attention
Various reporters tried different ways to flag down Trump, calling out his name and jumping up and down.
And some journalists had their own agenda. Afghan White House journalist Nazira Karimi, who had pushed her way to the front of the press pack, asked about her home country.
But, alas, she vexed the president with her heavy accent.
‘You have any plan to change Afghanistan’s situation? Are you able to recognize Taliban?,’ she said.
‘It’s a beautiful voice and a beautiful accent. The only problem is I can’t understand a word you’re saying,’ Trump said.
Another reporter tried to help out. ‘She’s asking about the Taliban,’ the reporter said.
The president shrugged it off. ‘I’ll just say this. Good luck. Live in peace.’
Trump, was in total control, calling on reporters himself instead of following the tradition of letting the foreign leader call on a member or two of the press corps that traveled with him.
Trump took the lead on deciding on reporters and answering questions as Netanyahu deferred to him.
As Trump defended his plan to have the U.S. take over the devastated Gaza strip while moving Palestinian population to neighboring countries, Netanyahu enjoyed the show.
The Israeli prime minister leaned against his podium, legs crossed at ankle, grinning as Trump easily tossed out more suggestions, including not ruling out sending in American troops to make his vision a reality and bragging he could turn Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’
Tuesday was the two-week mark of Trump’s presidency and his first press conference with a foreign leader.
He has hit the ground running since he was inaugurated on January 20th and has shown no sign of letting up.
His administration has delivered bombshell after bombshell, from shutting down USAID, to offering federal workers buyouts, to his vision for a Gaza rebuilt by America.
President Donald Trump’s bombshell announcement on Gaza sent reporters into a frenzy
Reporters try for Trump’s attention so he’d call on them in his press conference
Trump hinted at his plans throughout the day in the lead up to his bombshell announcement.
He called reporters into the Oval Office at the last minute early Tuesday afternoon, ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, to watch him sign executive orders and hear his musing about Gaza.
It was there he first suggested moving out the Palestinian people.
‘I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land, and we get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable,’ he said.
‘Say, if we can find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had just decades and decades of death. Well, they could be in Jordan, and they could be in Egypt.’
He doubled down on that idea in his Oval Office meeting with Netanyahu.
‘It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return. Why would they want to return? The place has been hell,’ he told reporters.
‘I hope that we can do something where they wouldn’t want to go back, who wouldn’t want to go back, they experienced nothing but death and destruction.’
President Donald J Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu of Israel hold a news conference in the East Room of the White House
But he took it even further at his press conference, when he said the United States should take over the area.
‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a good job with it too,’ Trump said.
‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,’ he continued. ‘Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.’
He didn’t rule out sending in American troops, saying he would do it ‘if it’s necessary.’
And when asked who would live there, he answered: ‘I envision world people living there. The world’s people.’
He added that ‘I don’t want to be cute, I don’t want to be a wiseguy’ but said it could be the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’
His announcement sent shockwaves through the East Room and throughout the world.
‘I thought, heading into this press conference, it would be hard for President Trump to say something more surprising about Gaza than he’d already said earlier today. I was wrong,’ wrote Washington Post reporter Matt Viser on X.
