Democrats rip Trump Gaza takeover plan: ‘Openly calling for ethnic cleansing’

Democratic lawmakers sharply criticized President Trump’s plan for the U.S. to take over Gaza, calling it “ethnic cleansing.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said in a post on the social platform X that Trump is “openly calling for ethnic cleansing while sitting next to a genocidal war criminal.”

“He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing,” Tlaib said, responding to a post that highlighted Trump’s meeting Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump floated the idea of the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip, saying Tuesday that Americans should be responsible for cleaning up and rebuilding the war-torn region. They’re some of Trump’s most extreme comments on the topic, as nearly 2 million Palestinians hope to have their own state. Trump suggested the U.S. would develop the land there but didn’t give details on who would be able to live on it.

Tlaib, in a separate post, said Palestinians “aren’t going anywhere.”

“This president can only spew this fanatical bulls‑‑‑ because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing,” Tlaib said. “It’s time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up.”

Additionally, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) argued that Trump is throwing a match on an “already very volatile situation,” noting Middle Eastern countries have already met about the idea and did not approve of the U.S. taking over.

“He just said that it will be U.S. policy to forcibly displace 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip,” Van Hollen said on MSNBC. “That is ethnic cleansing by another name.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), meanwhile, argued Trump has “totally lost it.”

“A U.S. invasion of Gaza would lead to the slaughter of thousands of U.S. troops and decades of war in the Middle East,” Murphy said on X. “It’s like a bad, sick joke.”

Murphy attempted to shift attention away from Gaza and back to the U.S. government in another post.

“The media and the chattering class will focus on it for a few days and Trump will have succeeded in distracting everyone from the real story – the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people,” he wrote.

And Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) labeled Trump a "warmonger.”

"Trump wants to invade Panama, Greenland and now Gaza."

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

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