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Donald Trump shared a bizarre video that appears to unveil “what’s next” for the Gaza Strip, including the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drinking cocktails and lounging topless beside a pool.
Late Tuesday evening, Trump took to Truth Social to reveal his brazen vision for the region in a 35-second AI-generated clip.
The clip starts with masked, gun-wielding men and small children picking through rubble in the desolate city’s ruins, before “Gaza 2025” and “What’s Next?” appear on the screen in bold, red, white and blue letters.
Cranes and building work begin to dominate the skyline before, eventually, palm trees and full skyscrapers spring up with yachts left moored in the bay.
“Donald Trump will set you free, bringing the life for all to see, no more troubles, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here,” blares the backing track over the montage of the newly-regenerated Gaza.
Gold busts and statues of the president and the words “Trump Gaza” appear everywhere around the city. In one clip, a child is seen holding a giant, golden Trump balloon.
A smiling Elon Musk AI lookalike dips bread into what appears to be fondue or hummus, before later eating a pizza. The tech billionaire also appears in several clips with dollar bills cascading from the sky while cars from his electric vehicle company, Tesla, are seen driving through the streets.
A group of bearded, long-haired belly dancers performing on the beach. Trump, who is wearing a full suit, is then seen dancing with – and ogling at – a belly dancer inside a hall.
In arguably the most bizarre clip, Trump and Netanyahu lounge beside the pool wearing only a small pair of trunks and sipping on cocktails, surrounded by lavish apartment blocks.
Just hours after posting the clip to Truth Social, the video has sparked a slew of backlash online.
“This is a reminder that in recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. will ‘own Gaza’ and has said its 2 million residents will be relocated,” the Republicans Against Trump X account tweeted on Wednesday morning.
Trump has been met with a mixture of support, dissent and outright confusion after vowing to transform the war-torn territory from a “hell hole” to the “Riviera of the Middle East” during a White House press conference on February 4 that even took Netanyahu by surprise.
Without ruling out military intervention, the president declared that the U.S. would “own” Gaza, which has seen vast destruction and around 47,000 deaths in the 15-month conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Trump also suggested millions of displaced Palestinians resettle in “areas where the leaders currently say no.”
The president claimed that “everybody” he had spoken to about the plan “loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent.”
Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle have decried the proposal as amounting to ethnic cleansing under international law. However, several of his MAGA faithful have praised his plans to “Make Gaza Beautiful Again”.
In response to the backlash, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump was thinking outside the box.
“President Trump is an outside-of-the-box thinker and a visionary leader who solves problems that many others, especially in this city, claim are unsolvable,” she said.
