President Trump says Jordan To Take In Gazans
The US is the biggest donor to Jordan and has pull, says President Trump
A reporter asked President Donald Trump during a January 30 press conference what are his plans for refugees expected to stream from Gaza. When the reporter asked, “Is there anything you can do to make them do that, I mean tariffs against those countries for example?”, the president answered, “They will do it. They will do it. They’re gonna do it, okay”
While signing various executive orders, Trump added, “We do a lot for them, and they’re gonna do it.”
Commentator Dave Rubin said of the prospect of Gazans being relocated, “What’s amazing about this is that Gaza was Egyptian prior to 1967 and Jordan is majority Palestinian.” He added, “Why wouldn’t they want to save their own people from those very mean Jews?” Trump's statement came after Israel announced that Gazans may return to the northern sector of the enclave, which has been largely destroyed since Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Last week, Trump called on Muslim countries, specifically Egypt and Jordan, to take in refugees and thus “clean out” the Gaza Strip. So far, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi have rejected that plan.
Jordan is currently home to 2 million+ Palestinian refugees. Egypt has a reinforced border dividing it from its former province, Gaza, and has not allowed Gazans to enter.
On January 26, revealed the contents of his conversation with King Abdullah on the previous day. “I said to him, 'I'd love for you to take on more because I'm looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it's a mess.'" Speaking at his Doral golf resort in Florida, Trump said he made a similar proposal to El-Sissi, saying he wants “Egypt to take people and I'd like Jordan to take people."
Subsequently, the Egyptian foreign minister stated that re-settling Palestinians "risks expanding the conflict in the region." The statement continued to reaffirm "Egypt's commitment to the principles and parameters of a political solution to the Palestinian issue, stressing that it remains the central issue in the Middle East. The delay in resolving it, ending the occupation, and restoring the stolen rights of the Palestinian people is the root cause of instability in the region.
"In this context, Egypt reiterates its continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land and their adherence to their legitimate rights in their land and homeland, as well as to the principles of international law and international humanitarian law. It also emphasizes its rejection of any infringement upon those inalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, annexation of land, or the eviction of the rightful owners through displacement or encouraging the transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or permanently."
Both Egypt and Jordan receive significant amounts of aid from the United States. Debt-ridden Jordan, an American ally, received in excess of $1.6 billion in 2023 alone. Much of that comes as support for Jordan's security forces and direct budget support and makes the U.S. the single largest donor to Jordan.