Trump Invites King Abdullah To White home Amid force For Jordan To Take In Gazans

President Trump has been insistent on his calls for Egypt and Jordan to take in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, after initial controversial comments last month saying his plan is to 'clean out the whole thing’ as it’s already been destroyed, and that Gazans can live their lives in peace elsewhere.

Jordan and Egypt had quickly rejected the statements, but Trump has still doubled and tripled down. In follow-up statements made to reporters last week, the president said, „You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”

Via AP

He continued: „I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”

On Sunday, Jordan’s government announced that King Abdullah will travel to Washington to meet with Trump at the White House on February 11.

„King Abdullah II will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, after His Majesty received an invitation letter from President Trump last week,” the king’s palace said in a statement.

Abdullah is about to feel the pressure from Trump first-hand over the Gaza crisis. But Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said days ago that Jordan’s stance remains „firm and unwavering” in rejecting any systematic displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

Trump may use the outsized US assistance provided to pressure their leaders to agree to his plan at least on some level. But the reality is that this is has been an ultra politically sensitive issue for over half-a-century, with wars having been fought related to it.

Past historic waves of Palestinian refugees and armed groups flooding nearby Arab countries have literally erupted in wars and street battles, which especially Lebanon can attest to. Jordan has also seen its country destabilized at times – Black September being a prime case in point.

There’s also the logistics – with Palestinians now rushing back to their largely destroyed communities in northern Gaza, they are defiantly telling the world they don’t plan to leave their homeland. The Gaza ceasefire would likely collapse if Palestinians were suddenly pushed out in large waves into Egypt and Jordan.

Palestinians have by and large „voted with their feet” on the question of return to their destroyed communities as the ceasefire holds…

THE RETURN TO THE NORTH OF GAZA pic.twitter.com/qg5ddiqAre

— Muhammad Smiry (@MuhammadSmiry) January 27, 2025

Jordan already hosts several million Palestinians, based on past historic large refugee waves, and the result of mass displacement due to various Arab-Israeli wars. If Jordan goes along with Trump’s plan, there would be the likelihood of some kind of armed Palestinian uprising within Jordan itself. Such a plan would be nearly impossible to execute or at least be deeply complicated from the start.