President Donald Trump's recent suggestion that the United States could take over Gaza stands in strong contrast to the ideas and strategies laid out by those he has chosen to lead the Department of Defense.
While the president maintained on Thursday that no U.S. troops would be involved in this reconstruction effort, it's unclear who exactly would work on clearing the rubble, surveying the land, and rebuilding the infrastructure — or who will keep them safe. Hamas, the terrorist group that brought on the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel, would almost certainly try to resist the effort.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a big Israel supporter but he has highlighted the mission at the southern border as their primary focus. His first trip as secretary was to visit troops at Fort Bliss in Texas.
Hegseth told military members during a Pentagon town hall on Friday that when the president picked him to lead the military, "his charge to me was return that department to its warfighting mission at its core, warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, accountability, and readiness, the bedrock of what we all understand our basic mission to be."
"Chaos happens when the perception of American strength is not complete, and so we aim to reestablish that deterrence," he explained. "And it starts with our own southern border. It starts with the defense of our homeland. I think in some ways, this department, over time, has felt like that's somebody else's mission."
Hegseth left open the possibility that U.S. troops could be deployed to Gaza earlier this week when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Pentagon.
The people whom Hegseth will be surrounded with at the Pentagon are largely Israel supporters but also have their long-term attention focused on the threat from the Chinese Communist Party.
Elbridge Colby, whom the president has chosen to be the Pentagon’s policy chief, is a big believer the U.S. military needs to turn its focus to China more substantially and to significantly reduce its presence in Europe and the Middle East.
In his estimation, the U.S. is not ready for a conflict with Beijing, and the time to get prepared is quickly running out.
Colby served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development during President Trump's first administration, and in that time, he helped produce the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which put a greater emphasis on the threat from China.
"I think it's absolutely possible we could lose" a war against China, Colby previously told the Washington Examiner. "We have never dealt with a rival at least in the last 150 years that is of greater economic size than we are. I mean, bear in mind during the Second World War, when the Soviet Union, the British Empire, and a few others, the United States economy alone was larger than Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and fascist Italy."
Amid concerns of Colby's perspective, the Republican Jewish Coalition wrote a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) backing him for the position.
“Mr. Colby understands that a strong and secure Israel is in America’s interests as well,” RJC CEO Matt Brooks and Norm Coleman, the group’s national chairman, wrote in their letter. “He fully supports the continued robust U.S. political, military and financial support of Israel,” according to Jewish Insider.
Colby called Israel’s degradation of its enemies Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran “superb” in October 2024, but noted, “We should be clear eyed that these threats and their like won’t go away,” and added, “We should back Israel and its efforts even as we rapidly shift our focus and resources to Asia and China.”
Previous comments made by Michael Dimino, Trump's pick to be the deputy assistant secretary of defense with the Middle East have also raised some eyebrows.
He said prior to his appointment that the previous administration should pressure Israel to allow more aid into Gaza both on humanitarian grounds and also to "deprive the Houthis of their claimed justification for attacks in the Red Sea." Dimino, a former CIA analyst, said in a February webinar, “There are no vital or existential U.S. interests in the region."
Dimino was sworn into his position shortly after the new administration began while Colby needs senate confirmation before he can start his position.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was critical of Trump's Pentagon picks and was one of three Republicans to vote against Hegseth's confirmation.
“President Trump has committed to restoring peace through strength and standing with Israel. But the folks staffing up his Pentagon operation don’t appear to have read the memo,” McConnell, the chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, said in a statement to Jewish Insider last month, in reference to Dimino.
Trump has been a longtime critic of so-called nation-building overseas and of “forever wars,” but neither the White House nor Pentagon ruled out sending in U.S. troops into Gaza. In the lead-up to the election, he publicly stated he wanted to see the end to Israel's wars in the region against Iran and their proxies, and an end to Russia's war against Ukraine, which is on the verge of its three-year anniversary later this month.
By the administration's own admission, it will likely take 10-15 years to rebuild Gaza, which Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, have repeatedly described as a "demolition site." It's unclear who would fund the rebuilding project, if Trump goes ahead with this plan.
Such a proposal also stands in stark contrast to Trump's creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, which he has tasked with identifying wasteful government spending. While DOGE, which is headed by Trump's billionaire ally Elon Musk, has yet to open the books at the Pentagon, it has already begun reviewing the Department of Veterans Affairs, among many other nondefense areas of government.
Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, indicated this week that Trump's proposal was in part an attempt to get regional leaders to come to the table with alternative and fresh ideas on how to end the conflict and create lasting peace in the region.
"The fact that nobody has a realistic solution and [Trump] puts some very bold, fresh, new ideas on the table. I don't think should be criticized in any way," the former Florida congressman explained. “I think [Trump’s plan] is going to bring the entire region to come [up] with their own solutions.”
This possible scenario could also be stopped if Israel decides to restart its war against Hamas. Israeli officials made one of their war objectives to prevent Hamas from maintaining governing control over Gaza, and in the weeks since the ceasefire was enacted, they have attempted to reassert itself, demonstrating that Israel's goal has not yet been achieved.
Hegseth, ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, told reporters that the U.S. had "supplied munitions that were previously not supplied" under the previous administration.
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The secretary said in the town hall on Friday that they would pursue "accountability" for the shambolic way the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden in 2021, though it's unclear what that entails. Despite Trump's frequent criticisms of the withdrawal, he, too, wanted to end the war during his first term in office.
There have been reports that the U.S. could withdraw its forces currently in Syria, which are there to ensure the defeat of ISIS, which was another policy idea Trump toyed with during his first administration but ultimately did not go through with.