-Donald Trump laid out a detailed plan to lower grocery prices and bring down the cost of living -- Wait. Sorry, I read that wrong. He wants to occupy the Gaza Strip.
. . and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East.
Well, okay, well, that sounds like a plan that'll go off without a hitch. For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look. " [ Cheers and applause ] You know, when Donald Trump first came down that golden escalator 7 million years ago, or whenever that was, you know.
. . You remember, like a teenager looking for a Hot Topic at a shopping mall.
He positioned himself as an outsider who would fight against the establishment. In those early Republican primary debates, he spent most of his time mercilessly attacking people like Ted Cruz and his current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and screaming at the top of his lungs about the Bush family until he was almost so red he disappeared into the background. He looks like he's about to fade away Marty McFly style.
The only thing left will be his eyes and hair. I mean, look at these two! They couldn't be any more different.
They look like opposite sides of a crossing signal. Trump repeatedly slammed the Bush family, and specifically George W. Bush, for starting wars in the Middle East.
-The war in Iraq has been a disaster. He started the war in Iraq. Am I supposed to be a big fan?
We would've been so much better off if Bush and the rest of them went to the beach and didn't do anything. -It's such a New York/New Jersey insult to call someone useless by telling them to go to the beach. It sounds like something Tony Soprano would say to Christopher after he screws up a robbery.
"Hey, how about next time, instead of hijacking a truck, you and your stupid friends go to the [bleep] beach? " "Okay! Okay, Tone.
Jesus, Tone. Alright! " So, Trump slammed U.
S. military interventions and claimed that he would radically transform American foreign policy to stop meddling in other countries and start focusing on America. -We are finally putting America first.
[ Cheers and applause ] Our policy of never-ending war, regime change, and nation building is being replaced by the clear-eyed pursuit of American interests. We do not seek war. We do not seek nation building.
We are getting out of the nation building business. No more nation building. It's never going to work.
We must abandon the failed policy of nation building. We are not nation building again. We're not nation building.
We're going to end the era of nation building. A disastrous concept, a disastrous era. What are we doing?
What are we doing? We're nation building. Why are we nation building over there?
We want to nation build over here. We've tried the nation building. Doesn't work.
Not going to work, never going to work. -"Nation building, it never works. And because I'm a man of my word, I will never try it.
And I'll tell you another reason why I will never try it. Because sometimes, these late night hosts, they like to play the long montages! [ Laughter ] They love the montage and it has me saying one thing, and then a second montage comes along of me contradicting myself.
The second montage. . .
That's where they get you. The second montage. " Since then, Trump has apparently done some thinking and decided that, actually, the problem with George W.
Bush is that he didn't do enough nation building in the Middle East. So, now, Trump has an unhinged and obviously illegal plan to go even further in a part of the world where we will definitely be welcomed with open arms. -The shocking plan from President Trump to have America control Gaza.
It is one of the most stunning international proposals from any American president in, well, decades. -The president of the United States appeared to announce a completely unprecedented American policy towards Gaza and the people that live there that, on its face, would both violate international law and be seen by millions, maybe hundreds of millions or billions around the world, as the US backing explicit ethnic cleansing. -The U.
S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings.
Level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. -"I feel like they just got me with the second montage. [ Laughter ] Oh, boy, do I have egg on my face.
And that's a problem because egg prices are through [bleep] the roof. Someone should do something about that. But first, Gaza beach!
" So, if you're keeping track of Trump's plans for territorial expansion, he wants Canada to become the 51st state. He wants to acquire Greenland from Denmark. He wants to take control of the Panama Canal.
He's threatened to use military force in Mexico. And now, he wants to own the Gaza Strip. George W.
Bush right now is probably thinking, "Hey, man, I just did Iraq and called it a day. That feller threw his shoes at me and I took the hint. [ Laughter ] I'm kidding.
I'm kidding. I also did Afghanistan. I also did Afghanistan.
" And once again, everyone's back in the same old trap, right? It's the same old trap we're always in, of not knowing if this is a real idea or just Trump distracting us while Casper the Very Unfriendly Ghost dismantles the federal government. But Trump, for his part, he insists he's taking it seriously, and that he's not trying to be cute, or in his words, a wise guy.
-I envision world. . .
people living there, the world's people. I think you'll make that into an international, unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable.
We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And I don't want to be cute, I don't want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East. -First of all, if you're so desperate the see the Riviera, then maybe take your own advice.
Go to the [bleep] beach. And second. .
. [ Laughter ] It's never good when a sentence starts with the words "I don't want to be a wise guy. " Presidents don't talk like that.
Abraham Lincoln never said, "Hey, stunad! A house divided against itself cannot stand! You freaking jabronis!
Now, let's hit up the Galleria and look at some tracksuits. Oh! " "Alright!
" Abe is ready to party! " [ Laughing ] Also. .
. Oh, no, no, no! [ Cheers and applause ] No, no, no!
I won't stand for it. Also, can we go back to this? -I envision world.
. . people living there, the world's people.
-World. . .
people, so people. I think. .
. it's safe to assume the reporter wasn't asking if aliens were going to live there. She basically said, "Who do you envision living there?
" And your answer was "people. " It's nice to have a straight shooter back in the White House. Trump was also asked where the Palestinians would go, and suggested that neighboring countries should take them in.
-If we can build something for them in one of the countries, and it could be Jordan, and it could be Egypt, it could be other countries, and you could build four or five or six areas. I think that Gaza, maybe, is a demolition site right now. If you look at Gaza, it's all.
. . I mean, there's hardly a building standing, and the ones that are are going to collapse.
You can't live in Gaza right now. -"And if we ever find the people who did it -- Oh, never mind! He's sitting right next to me!
He's sitting right next to me. We're very good buds. " So, let me see if I understand this.
The guy who's famously anti-immigration wants Egypt and Jordan to take in millions of refugees. "I was on the phone with Egypt and Jordan, and I told them, 'If there's one thing I've always believed, the more the merrier! ' 'Build bridges, not walls,' I say!
" While we're talking about this clip, I have to ask, who did this Oval Office redesign? Is this the White House or the crypt of an Egyptian pharaoh? Be careful, if you drink out of the wrong chalice, you might turn to dust.
[ Laughs ] [ Laughter ] This abhorrent and unhinged plan would obviously be a massive human rights violation that constitutes ethnic cleansing and violates international law. Thankfully, we have an opposition party in Congress with the integrity and moral clarity to stand up to Trump. -Pennsylvania's Democratic Senator John Fetterman says he is open to an American occupation of the Gaza Strip.
When asked if he wanted to see U. S. troops on the ground in Gaza, Fetterman said, "They'll certainly be a part of it.
I don't know what the role is. But they're obviously a part of it. " -I mean, it makes sense he likes this plan.
Guy's been dressed for the beach for 30 years. Looks like a cashier at a vape store on the boardwalk. But seriously, like, what is wrong with you?
Trump is pitching an insane and unworkable idea that would be a massive violation of human rights, cause outrage around the world, and entangle the US in exactly the kind of foreign quagmire he promised to keep us out of, and you're reacting to it like someone at the Carhartt store just told you there's a sale on hoodies and cargo shorts. And look, I think it's important to say we should never have gotten to this point to begin with. Joe Biden should've demanded a ceasefire a long time ago.
It's what a majority of voters wanted. And if there were any voters who were upset with Biden over that, it is his fault, not theirs. He could have appealed to those voters by ending U.
S. support for the war instead of acting like a powerless bystander and lickin' ice cream with some doofus. Oh, [bleep] me!
You ever get an ice cream headache that lasts for, like, an entire year? Trump is a hypocrite and liar who contradicts himself. Everyone knows that, but more than that, his abandonment of America, first, shows, once again that right wing MAGA populism is a scam.
It's just a cover-up for billionaires like Trump and Elon to carve up governments and territories for themselves while they rip off not just the American people, but. . .
-World people. -That is -- that is what we do call them. It's what we've always called them.
This has been "A Closer Look. " [ Cheers and applause ] Thanks for watching!