United States President Donald Trump has declared that Palestinians would have no right of return to Gaza under his takeover plan, describing his proposal in excerpts of an interview released yesterday as a “real estate development for the future.”

Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier that “I would own it” and that there could be as many as six different sites for Palestinians to live outside Gaza under the plan, which the Arab world and others in the international community have rejected.

“No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing,” Trump said when Baier asked if the Palestinians would have the right to return to the enclave, most of which has been reduced to rubble by Israel’s military since October 2023.

“In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever – it’s not habitable.”

Trump first revealed the shock Gaza plan during a joint news conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, drawing outrage from Palestinians and vehement rejection across the Arab world.

The U.S. president pressed his case for Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza, devastated by the Israel-Hamas war, and for Egypt and Jordan to take them.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty flew to Washington in the wake of Trump’s remarks. He met at the State Department yesterday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with neither speaking to the media.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II was set to hold talks with Trump today.

In the Fox interview – which will be broadcast yesterday after the first half was screened a day earlier – Trump said he would build “beautiful communities” for the more than two million Palestinians who live in Gaza.

“Could be five, six, could be two. But we’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is,” added Trump.

“In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”

Trump stunned the world when he announced out of the blue last week that the United States would “take over the Gaza Strip,” remove rubble and unexploded bombs and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

But while he initially said that Palestinians could be among the “world people” allowed to live there, he has since appeared to harden his position to suggest that they could not.