Skip to content Skip to footer

Rubio Says Trump’s Plan to Expel All Palestinians From Gaza Is “Very Generous”

The secretary of state’s remarks came as Trump faced widespread backlash for his proposal.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio talks to the media during a joint news conference with Guatemala's President Bernardo Arevalo at the Culture Palace in Guatemala City on February 5, 2025.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump’s call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza — widely condemned by international officials as incitement to commit human rights violations — is actually “very generous” toward Palestinians.

In remarks, Rubio said that Trump’s suggestion — to strip Palestinians who have already faced decades of Israeli dispossession, occupation and violence and to even further erase Palestine and all of the culture within it — was not meant in a “hostile” manner.

“The billions of dollars that are going to be required for reconstruction are enormous. Some areas have been rendered unlivable now and for the foreseeable future. So what President Trump announced yesterday is the offer, the willingness, of the United States to become responsible for the reconstruction of that area,” Rubio said.

The secretary of state appeared to walk back some of Trump’s statements, claiming that Trump was actually suggesting that Palestinians be displaced temporarily while Gaza is rebuilt.

“People are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it. It is akin to a natural disaster,” Rubio said, ignoring the fact that it is the Israeli military, armed with U.S. weapons and intelligence, that has leveled Gaza and rendered it largely uninhabitable.

“It was not meant as a hostile move, it was meant as a, I think, a very generous move, the offer to rebuild,” Rubio said.

Rubio’s statements appeared to be part of a Trump administration strategy to spin what Trump said and frame displacement and American imperialism as a humanitarian endeavor. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Trump was only suggesting for Palestinians to be temporarily moved.

“We’ll own it,” Trump said. “We’re going to take over that piece, develop it and create thousands of thousands of jobs, and it will be something the entire Middle East can be proud of.”

Trump also said that he wanted to “resettle” Palestinians in Gaza “permanently,” in places with less violence and unrest — not acknowledging that Israel, with U.S. sponsorship, has been responsible for the genocide in Gaza and the violence against Palestinians for decades beforehand.

In reality, Trump’s plan, seemingly made without consultation of any Palestinian parties, is a clear call for ethnic cleansing. It would throw millions of Palestinians’ lives into chaos while sowing enormous tension in the Middle East, contributing to even further destabilization. It could also open the door to further expansion of Israeli occupation of Palestine, which has already been ruled illegal by international authorities.

Trump has previously floated plans to redevelop Palestine while totally sidestepping the will of the Palestinian people. In his first term, the administration drew up a $50 billion plan to give Israel control over much of the occupied West Bank and flood foreign investment into Gaza — a plan that opponents noted at the time would violate Palestinians’ right to self-determination and eliminate hopes of a Palestinian state.

We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.

As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.

Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.

As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.

At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.

Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.

You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.