Former White House Secretary Mick Mulbany, who served in President Trump's first administration, said he was confused to hear the president lay out a proposal to take over the Gaza Strip.
“It wasn't him. It wasn't his language,” Mulbany said in an interview with News Nation's “Hills” when asked to evaluate Trump's comments.
At a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump proposed that Palestinians would relocate from Gaza forever and that the US would turn their territory into economic development. Trump said the US military will be used to secure the Gaza Strip “if necessary.”
“I was watching him. The man who had worked long to drive us out of the eternal war in Afghanistan said, “We are going to occupy this land for the next 10 or 15 years. ” Mulbany said. “That didn't make sense to me.”
Mulvaney suggested that the proposal could be someone else's idea.
“And I sat down and saw the energy levels, some languages, some of the subsequent reports, some of the reports that came out afterwards, some of the leaks that came out about the process, and that was Jared Kushner's It sounded like, I liked Donald Trump,” Mulbany said.
“So it wasn't surprising they dialed it today,” he continued. “Last night, seeing this was more of a balloon floating than a policy statement, I got my intentions.”
The hill reached out to the White House for comments.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt defended Trump's remarks on Wednesday when he was plagued by questions during a briefing with reporters. She rejects the suggestion that Trump's comments have criticized his “America First” foreign policy doctrine or our involvement in foreign conflicts, and that his long-standing comments have been at odds with the United States. did.
“This rejects the premise of your question that it forces the US to get caught up in foreign conflicts,” Levitt said. “The president has not committed to putting his boots on the ground in Gaza. He also says that the US is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza.”
“It's an out-of-the-box idea. That's President Trump, and that's why the American people chose him,” she added. “His goal is peace in the Middle East for all people in the region.”
Leavitt offers a small break from Trump on the question of whether Palestinians living in Gaza should relocate forever, suggesting that it could be temporary.
“The President has made it clear that a temporary relocation from Gaza is necessary to rebuild this effort,” she said. “Again, it's a dismantling site now. It's not a place to live for any person.”
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