U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran, floated the idea of deporting U.S. citizens convicted of crimes and said Palestinians may have no alternative but to leave Gaza in wide-ranging comments to reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
On Iran, Trump said he’s told his advisers to obliterate the country if it assassinates him.
“If they did that, they would be obliterated,” he said while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. “There won’t be anything left.”
The Justice Department filed federal charges in November over an alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election.
The department alleged Iranian officials had instructed Farhad Shakeri, 51, in September to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran.
Mulls deportation of U.S. prisoners
On the issue of U.S. prisoners, Trump said he is studying the legality of sending dangerous offenders to prisons in other countries.
“If we had the legal right to do it, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” he said. “I don’t know that we do. We’re looking at it right now.”
Trump didn’t say which countries might take U.S. prisoners.
But his comments come after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said El Salvador had offered to jail some violent American criminals and that the offer was “very generous” — even though it raised some legal concerns.
Proposes permanent displacement of Palestinians
On Gaza, Trump reiterated on Tuesday his call for Palestinians to “permanently” leave the enclave, which he described as a “demolition site” following Israel’s war with Hamas militants.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza,” Trump said, sitting in the Oval Office with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location,” Trump said.
Israel removed its blockades of northern Gaza, allowing thousands of Palestinians to return to their communities — even if their homes were destroyed. Meanwhile, families in Israel are waiting for word about if, and when, hostages will be released.
“I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy. You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”
Trump has called on Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to take in Palestinians from Gaza temporarily while reconstruction takes place in the enclave after the devastating war between Hamas and Israel. His call Tuesday was the first time he has publicly floated making that resettlement permanent.
“I hope that we could do something where they wouldn’t want to go back,” Trump said. “Who would want to go back? They’ve experienced nothing but death and destruction.”
Trump’s remarks echo the wishes of Israel’s far right and contradict former president Joe Biden’s commitment against mass displacement of Palestinians.
Arab states and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the idea, which some human rights advocates have likened to ethnic cleansing.
Palestinians claim Gaza as part of a future homeland, and many have indicated a desire to remain and rebuild.
