Trump threatens to cut off aid to Jordan and Egypt if countries don’t take Palestinians from Gaza

President Donald Trump said Monday night that he would be open to cutting off aid to Jordan and Egypt if the countries don’t accept Palestinians from Gaza. 

Trump spoke to reporters in the Oval Office where he issued a final ultimatum to Hamas saying ‘all hell will break loose’ if every remaining hostage is not returned to Israel by noon on Saturday. 

He was also asked more about his plan to have Palestinians move into nearby countries, including Jordan and Egypt, while the U.S. turns their homeland of Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East,’ a pitch he made alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. 

Trump was asked Monday if he would withhold foreign aid from Jordan and Egypt if the countries don’t go along with his plan. 

‘Yeah, maybe, sure why not?’ Trump answered. ‘If they don’t agree, if they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid, yes.’   

Trump made the threat a day before Jordan’s Abdullah II is expected to meet with the president at the White House on Tuesday. 

Trump has said that all Palestinians will want to leave Gaza and has insisted that the surrounding Arab countries would allow hundreds of thousands of refugees to be resettled. 

Overall, there are 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza.  

But so far the leaders of Jordan and Egypt have rejected that hundeds of thousands of Palestinians could be resettled in their countries while Gaza is rebuilt. 

Trump claimed that wasn’t the case Monday. 

‘I do think he’ll take, and I think other countries will take also,’ Trump said in the Oval Office Monday night. ‘They have good hearts.’ 

Other critics have said a forced removal of Palestianians would amount to war crimes or ‘ethnic cleansing.’  

On Monday, Trump was asked to clarify comments he made that suggested the Palestinians wouldn’t be able to return to their homeland once it had been given a makeover. 

‘We’ve spoken to a lot of Palestinians, they would love to leave Gaza if they could find a place to be. And I’ve spoken to various leaders of various countries, the not-so-distant area from where we’re talking about, the Gaza Strip,’ Trump said. ‘And I think they were very positive about providing land.’ 

‘And if we could build a nice place for people to live safely, everybody in Gaza would do it,’ he insisted. ‘They’ve been persecuted, they’ve been spit on, they’ve been treated like trash, and they would love to get out of Gaza – but until now they’ve never had an alternative.’ 

The president was insistant that ‘they’re all going to leave’ when pressed on it. 

‘When they have a nice place that’s safe, they’re all going to leave. It’s a hellhole right now,’ Trump said. 

Trump wouldn’t answer directly when a reporter asked if the U.S. would force the Palestinians out. 

‘You’re going to see that they’re all going to want to leave,’ Trump answered.