-Analysis-
PARIS – Donald Trump’s relentless stream of announcements is dizzying, and their actual content only adds to the sense of chaos. The most outlandish of them all? His declaration this week about the Gaza Strip, where the former U.S. president says he wants to take control and turn the war-torn territory into a new “Riviera” — minus its Palestinian inhabitants.
The entire world has been buzzing about Trump’s latest remark, once again putting him at the heart of every conversation — and that’s just as he intends. His strategy is clear: flood the public sphere with a relentless barrage of statements, executive orders and headline-grabbing moves, overwhelming public opinion to the point of numbness.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
This approach was actually theorized by Steve Bannon, the far-right strategist who was once a close ally of Trump. In a resurfaced 2019 video uncovered by journalist Ezra Klein, Bannon lays it out bluntly: “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” End quote. Sound familiar? Isn’t that exactly what Trump is doing now?
Trump’s agenda is clear — we see it play out every single day. While everyone is caught up talking about Gaza, there’s far less attention on the shocking way Elon Musk has aggressively taken on the administration — shutting down federal agencies, seizing data and pushing government employees to resign.
Panama and tariffs
The president’s provocative statements often serve as smokescreens, setting the bar impossibly high so he can negotiate his way to what he really wants.
Fox News quickly declared it a victory for Trump, and in the end, that’s all that really mattered.
Take the Panama Canal, for instance — he boldly threatened to take control of it. Then, like clockwork, his Secretary of State Marco Rubio stepped in and secured exactly what Trump was after: Panama canceling its contract with the Hong Kong-based company managing the ports at both ends of the canal.
It was the same playbook with Mexico and Canada — the tariff showdown that seemed like a full-blown crisis was suddenly resolved within hours, all thanks to a vague promise of cooperation. Fox News quickly declared it a victory for Trump, and in the end, that’s all that really mattered.
Gaza gamble
Trump’s announcement about Gaza triggered a particularly big wave of condemnation, including from the French government and major Arab capitals — except in Israel, where, according to a poll, 80% of the public welcomed the idea.
But is this proposal even realistic? Taking Gaza and expelling its Palestinian inhabitants would violate international law, involve the U.S. military in a conflict zone that Donald Trump aimed to avoid, and could destabilize countries close to the United States.
Could the Gaza plan be yet another smokescreen?
There are indeed a lot of reasons to believe this won’t happen.
But what is Donald Trump’s true objective in the Middle East? What do we make of his supposed grand plans for the region, one that involves Saudi Arabia and Israel?
Could the Gaza plan be yet another smokescreen, designed to set the bar high so that backing down later would appear as a concession? A senior diplomat who served in the Middle East suggested to me that such a narrative would allow the Saudis to claim they saved the Palestinians from expulsion.
The answer will come soon enough, but let’s not forget Steve Bannon’s strategy: Bang, Bang, Bang — occupy the media’s space to allow us to get our business done.
