Trump’s Bold New Diplomacy: Ethnically Cleanse Palestinians or Kiss Your Aid Goodbye

As the world grows increasingly outraged by the U.S. backing Israel’s genocide, Trump’s threats to cut aid to Egypt and Jordan no longer carry the weight they once did.

Ah, President Trump, the man with a solution to every problem—especially if that problem involves ignoring history, human rights, and the overwhelming disdain the world feels for the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation. His latest grand gesture? Holding Egypt and Jordan hostage by threatening to cut off billions in aid unless they accept Palestinian refugees fleeing the genocide unfolding in Gaza.

Because, who needs a coherent, long-term strategy for Middle Eastern peace when you can just brandish the magic wand of U.S. aid (you know the organization he has been dismantling) and pretend that money solves everything?

Trump, ever the self-proclaimed dealmaker, confidently declares, “I think I can make a deal with Jordan. I think I can make a deal with Egypt.” Well, with his uncanny ability to oversimplify everything, who wouldn’t believe him? After all, he’s been running the U.S. government like a high-stakes casino, where international relations are just a game of throwing cash around and making countries dance to the tune of U.S. interests.

Egypt, receiving around $1.3 billion annually in military aid, and Jordan, with over $1.5 billion in economic and military assistance, have long been on the U.S. payroll. Trump seems to think that this financial leverage makes it a slam dunk to strong-arm both nations into accepting waves of ethnically-cleansed refugees from Gaza, which is so convenient for him.

Now, Trump’s executive order to suspend all foreign aid for 90 days sounds dramatic, right? But once you dig into the fine print, it’s the same tired con game. As per usual, Israel and its loyal U.S.-Israeli Arab shield regimes—Egypt and Jordan—are exempt from the order. Once again, the real game here isn’t about peace or fairness; it’s about maintaining a system where U.S. priorities—specifically, Israel’s priorities—are at the forefront, no matter how many people have to suffer for it.

What’s truly remarkable here is Trump’s utter failure to understand the realities of the Middle East. He’s overestimating U.S. influence while grossly underestimating the resilience of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian struggle for liberation is not a pawn in Trump’s diplomatic chess game, and it’s certainly not something that can be solved by bribing nations into accepting more refugees. But if he thinks throwing a few billion in aid around is going to smooth things over, then he clearly hasn’t been paying attention to the decades of resistance that have only grown stronger in the face of constant oppression.

Worst of all, Trump’s “brilliant idea” of moving Palestinians to Sinai or Jordan isn’t even an original thought. It’s a recycled, long-standing Israeli fantasy. Israel’s been toying with the idea of relocating Palestinians out of Gaza and into Egypt and Jordan for years.

In 2004, a leaked U.S. cable exposed Israel’s National Security Council Chief, Giora Eiland, calling Gaza a “huge concentration camp” and suggesting that 600 kilometers of Sinai be handed over to settle Palestinians. Because, naturally, the solution to decades of violence is to just move people around like pieces on a chessboard. Forget about addressing the root causes of the conflict—occupation, colonialism, and apartheid — let’s just displace even more people.

And, of course, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak revealed in 2010, revealing that Netanyahu had proposed settling Palestinians in Sinai as part of a peace deal. Mubarak, to his credit, rejected the offer. But Trump’s attempts to revive this plan in 2023 reveal the arrogance and complete disregard for the sovereignty of Egypt and Jordan—nations that already have their own pressing challenges, let alone the responsibility of housing even more displaced people in the name of a “peace deal.”

Trump’s plan for Palestinian ethnic cleansing is, at best, an insult to every Middle Eastern country involved. At worst, it’s an impossible fantasy that completely ignores decades of history, resistance, and the fact that Palestinians will never accept being forcibly displaced.

Lets not pretend that Egypt and Jordan are the only players in the region. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE have vast wealth at their disposal and can easily pick up the slack if U.S. aid to Egypt and Jordan were to dry up. After all, Saudi Arabia alone has a nearly $400 billion sovereign wealth fund—certainly more than enough to absorb the paltry $3 billion in combined U.S. aid to Egypt and Jordan. Trump’s attempt to coerce countries into compliance by threatening their aid underscores his complete failure to grasp how the Middle East operates outside of his twisted transactional view of diplomacy.

Trump’s rhetoric on Palestinians is also increasingly unpopular on the global stage. The world has had enough of U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. With over 70,000 Palestinian civilians killed since October 2023 and the UN condemning Israel’s actions as gross violations of international law, the global consensus is fast turning against U.S. complicity in these war crimes.

Trump may think his words still hold weight, but the growing chorus of condemnation for Israeli violence—including from key U.S. allies—is a reminder that American influence isn’t as strong as it once was. World leaders are realizing they no longer have to toe the U.S. line when it comes to Israel. The tide is turning, and Trump, stuck in his echo chamber, is too blind to see it.

Trump thinks money talks louder than human dignity, history, or the steadfast determination of the Palestinian people. But if there’s one thing his entire presidency proved, it’s that money alone can’t fix the world’s most pressing issues, especially when that money is used as leverage for the forced displacement of an entire population.

His approach is a sad caricature of modern diplomacy—and a testament to how out of touch he truly is with the people, history, and resistance movements that continue to define the Middle East.