Trump 2nd term live updates: US will ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip, Trump says

As the second administration of President Donald Trump continued its rapid recasting of the federal government, the president was scheduled Tuesday to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Officials in China also announced Tuesday retaliatory tariffs on select U.S. imports, countering Trump’s threatened 10% tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump was expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday putting that blanket duty into effect, a day after pausing tariffs he’d threatened to levy against Mexico and Canada.

And two of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet picks will face confirmation votes in Senate committees on Tuesday — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services and Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence.

A federal judge on Tuesday night blocked the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order that would require housing transgender women in male prisons, determining that the policy likely violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth – nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan – granted a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement of the executive order and requires the Bureau of Prisons to house prisoners in facilities corresponding to their identifying gender.

The order also required the Bureau of Prisons to continue providing medical care to transgender inmates, including hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria.

Three transgender women brought the lawsuit last month after the Bureau of Prisons notified them they would be transferred to male facilities following Trump’s executive order that required the federal government to only recognize two sexes.

According to the Department of Justice, 16 transgender women in total are housed in female penitentiaries managed by the Bureau of Prisons, which intended to transfer them to facilities corresponding to their sex at birth.

In a resurfaced interview from February 2024, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, referred to the Gaza Strip as “waterfront property” and said the embattled land is “very valuable.”

The former property dealer who is married to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, made the comments in an interview at Harvard University discussing the Israel-Hamas war.

“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable… if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner told Professor Tarek Masoud at the time.

“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner added.

Kushner’s remarks from last year are facing renewed attention after Trump on Tuesday proposed that the United States “take over” the Gaza Strip, “level the site” and rebuild it.

“We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal,” Trump said. “And I don’t want to be cute. I don’t want to be a wiseguy. But the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be — so this could be so magnificent.”

The Senate confirmed Pam Bondi to serve as attorney general by a vote of 54-46.

The only Democrat to vote yes on Bondi was Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

Bondi is seen as one of Trump’s most loyal defenders, who represented him during his first impeachment, boosted his efforts to sow doubts about the 2020 election and stood by him during his New York criminal trial.

Large groups of USAID employees have begun receiving notices placing them on administrative leave with pay, according to an email obtained by ABC News.

The email, sent by a Department of Government Efficiency representative, has an attached letter from acting Deputy Administrator Pete Marocco informing staffers they are on excused absence effective immediately.

“The purpose of this memorandum is to inform you that you are being placed on excused absence (also known as administrative leave) with pay effective immediately, pursuant to ADS 480. You will remain on administrative leave with pay until otherwise notified,” the letter said.

The email placing staff on administrative leave was sent to the same all-staff email that was used to inform employees that offices were closed earlier this week.

A USAID official told ABC News that employees were getting the notice “en masse.”

One source told ABC News they were informed directly by senior human resource officers that leave notices were coming in batches.

President Donald Trump said the United States will “take over” the Gaza Strip while speaking alongside Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said at the White House.

“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he added.

Trump said he envisions the U.S. role in Gaza as a “long-term ownership position” and said he believes it would bring “great stability” to the Middle East.

“Everybody I have spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent,” Trump said.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said it’s long been a priority for Israel, after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that Gaza never pose a threat to Israel again but that Trump’s idea is “taking it to much a higher level.”

“He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this,” Netanyahu said, adding “He’s exploring it with his people, with his staff. I think it’s something that could change history and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”