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Donald Trump, who once referred to African nations as “s---hole” countries, appears to have zeroed in on one nation in the region to use as a dumping ground in his global migration agenda.
The Trump administration has considered using Libya — like El Salvador — as a landing spot for deportees as part of its mass deportation plan, which has repeatedly been held up in court. And NBC News reported Friday that the Trump administration has discussed using Libya, which has faced allegations of systemic abuses toward migrants, as a relocation spot to help Israel force Palestinians out of Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the region.
The Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News. The plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya’s leadership, two people with direct knowledge of the plans and a former U.S. official said. In exchange for the resettling of Palestinians, the administration would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago, those three people said. No final agreement has been reached, and Israel has been kept informed of the administration’s discussions, the same three sources said.
As NBC News added: "The State Department and the National Security Council did not respond to multiple requests for comment before this article was published. After publication, a spokesperson told NBC News that 'these reports are untrue.'"
Libya's government also denied such a plan, and representatives of the Israeli government declined to comment.
But given NBC News' reporting, it certainly appears the Trump administration may want to conscript Libya in a plan that has been credibly derided as a form of ethnic cleansing. Trump, of course, has said the United States will “take over” Gaza, in a half-baked plan that is opposed by an overwhelming majority of Americans and which experts say poses all sorts of national security concerns for people from the United States.
The Biden administration at least made an attempt to develop bonds with African nations by appealing to what they hoped would be a shared interest in democracy. Comparatively, the Trump administration seems intent on removing any pretense that the United States’ relationship with its African partners should be based on that shared interest. And they seem to be sending a clear message: that though these nations may be “s---holes” in the president's eyes, they can cozy up to him and earn his grace as long as they make themselves receptacles for the migrants his administration intends to displace or discard like refuse.