Mike Walz: Trump is an entrepreneur and a builder; Gaza evacuation the "only practical" path forward

In a series of interviews with American media this week, Mike Waltz, U.S. National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, thrust a contentious proposal back into the spotlight: evacuating Gaza’s population to third countries. Calling it “the most practical solution” to a war-torn region’s deepening crisis, Waltz framed the plan as both a humanitarian necessity and a geopolitical reset. “Trump is an entrepreneur, a builder,” he said. “He knows it’ll take at least a decade to restore the Strip, and people can’t live in the middle of a construction site.”

The idea, rooted in Trump’s Middle East vision, isn’t new—whispers of it surfaced during his campaign amid escalating violence between Israel and Hamas. But Waltz’s forceful endorsement marks a shift from rhetoric to policy push. Gaza, home to over two million Palestinians, has been battered by Israel's defending itself after repeated terror attacks and missiles, most recently since October 2023, leaving vast swaths reduced to rubble. “Look at the death and destruction,” Waltz said. “It will take years to rebuild that place.” His solution: relocate Gazans elsewhere rather than wait out a slow reconstruction under fire.

Waltz, a former Green Beret and one of Trump’s closest confidants, tied the plan to broader successes he credits to the President’s approach. He pointed to a hostage deal with Israel, finalized shortly after Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, as proof of renewed leverage. “The deal came through because they fear and respect the U.S. President and our partnership with Israel,” he said, taking a swipe at the Biden administration’s tenure. “The previous leadership was weak—things stalled.” That deal, which saw dozens of Israeli captives freed, has bolstered Trump’s claim of restoring American clout in the region.

But the evacuation pitch is the bolder gambit—and the riskier one. Waltz posed a stark question: “How do two million people live amid that devastation while everything is rebuilt?” He challenged Middle Eastern nations to act, noting, “We hear bleeding hearts for the Palestinians across the region—it’s time the Middle East offers them a solution.” No countries have publicly signed on, though speculation points to Gulf states or North African nations as potential hosts, given their past willingness to absorb displaced populations. Egypt, however, has flatly refused to open its borders, citing security risks and historical precedent from the 1948 Nakba.

The proposal dovetails with Israel’s own moves. Just days ago, its security cabinet greenlit a Defense Ministry plan to facilitate “voluntary” Palestinian exits from Gaza via land, sea, or air—an echo of Trump’s blueprint. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has called it a step toward stability, though 59 hostages remain in Hamas’s grip, complicating the optics. Waltz sidestepped specifics on implementation, instead framing it as common sense. “I can’t imagine anyone in Gaza being offered a chance to take their family to a better place and saying no,” he said.

Regional powers like Iran, backing Hamas and Yemen’s Houthis, have seized on the narrative, accusing the U.S. and Israel of ethnic cleansing—a claim Waltz dismissed implicitly by casting Trump as a problem-solver, not a provocateur. “The President wants to stop this cycle of madness,” he said. “Another war, more money for rebuilding, a few years, then another war—it can’t go on like this.”

The stakes are high. Gazan infrastructure is gutted: hospitals, schools, and water systems lie in ruins. The U.N. estimates reconstruction could cost $20 billion, a figure Waltz’s “decade” timeline seems to nod at.

For now, Waltz is betting on Trump’s deal-making instincts to break a deadlock decades in the making, the push signaling a White House ready to wield its influence—and test its allies—in a Middle East which grows more fragile and combative by the day.