Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who served in President Trump’s first administration, said he was puzzled to hear the president lay out a proposal for the United States to take control of the Gaza Strip.
“It wasn’t him. It was not his language,” Mulvaney said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill,” when asked to assess Trump’s remarks.
At a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump suggested Palestinians permanently relocate out of Gaza and that the U.S. turn the territory into an economic development. Trump said U.S. troops would be used to secure the Gaza Strip “if it’s necessary.”
“I was watching him, the man who worked for so long to get us out of the forever war in Afghanistan, was up here behind the podium saying, ‘We’re going to go and occupy this land for the next 10 or 15 years,’” Mulvaney said. “It made no sense to me.”
Mulvaney suggested the proposal could have been someone else’s idea.
“And as I sat and I watched the energy level, some of the language, some of the reports that came out afterward in the press, some of the leaks that came out about the process, it sounded to me more like Jared Kushner than it did like Donald Trump,” Mulvaney said.
“So, it wasn’t surprising to me today that they sort of dialed it back,” he continued. “I got the intention last night watching it that this was more of a floating of a balloon than it was a stating of policy.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s remarks on Wednesday, when she was peppered with questions at a briefing with reporters. She rejected the suggestion that Trump’s comments were at odds with his “America First” foreign policy doctrine or his years of criticizing U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts.
“I would reject the premise of your question that this forces the United States to be entangled in conflicts abroad,” Leavitt said. “The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza.”
“This is an out-of-the-box idea. That’s who President Trump is. That’s why the American people elected him,” she added. “His goal is lasting peace in the Middle East for all people in the region.”
Leavitt offered a slight break from Trump on the question of whether Palestinians living in Gaza should be permanently relocated, suggesting it may only be temporary.
“The president has made it clear they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza for the rebuilding of this effort,” she said. “Again, it’s a demolition site right now. It’s not a livable place for any human being.”
The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns NewsNation.
