Trump says US will 'take' Gaza not buy it: 'No one will question it'

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will "take" the besieged Gaza Strip under US authority while hosting Jordan's King Abdullah at the White House, one of the many avowed opponents of his plan.

The president continued to insist that he will implement his widely panned proposal to take ownership of Gaza, saying: "We’re going to run it very properly." He broke with previous comments that the US would be "buying and owning" Gaza, saying that instead, "we're not going to buy anything. We're going to have it. We're going to keep it, and we're going to make sure that there's going to be peace, and there's not going to be any problem, and nobody's going to question it."

"We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it," Trump said about the coastal enclave. "We'll have lots of good things built there, including hotels and office buildings and housing and other things, and we'll make that site into what it should be.