Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs At what point do we stop treating President Donald Trump’s ideas as merely reckless and start asking whether they are actually insane?While some of the commenters below will surely disagree, this is not just a rhetorical flourish or partisan hyperbole—it’s a legitimate question, one that the American public and the world need to confront as the second Trump presidency lurches toward complete implosion.His latest proposal—to have the U.S. “take over” Gaza and transform it into a glittering Mediterranean paradise, a “Riviera of the Middle East” in his own words—is so deranged, so completely divorced from reality, that it forces us to reconsider whether he is operating with anything remotely resembling rational cognition.
A couch sits at a heavily damaged building along Saftawi street in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Feb. 5.
A couch sits at a heavily damaged building along Saftawi street in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Feb. 5.
OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images
Trump has always trafficked in absurdity, but there was a time when his bombast at least had a strategic purpose. His hyperbole was meant to distract, to dominate the news cycle, to control the conversation. But this is something else. This is a man who, in just over two weeks of his second term, has careened from one disastrous decision to another, to the point where even his most loyal sycophants are struggling to keep up. His latest Gaza fantasy does not even rise to the level of a bad idea—it is the fever dream of a man who does not grasp the most basic tenets of history, diplomacy, or military strategy.Let’s be clear: Gaza is a war-ravaged, deeply contested strip of land that has been at the center of one of the most intractable conflicts in modern history. The idea that the United States could simply march in, seize control, and turn it into a luxurious beachside resort would be laughable if it were not so terrifying. How, exactly, does he envision this working? Does he propose sending in American troops to enforce the relocation of two million Palestinians? Will the U.S. military be tasked with overseeing hotel construction on the ashes of a humanitarian catastrophe? Even by the standards of Trump’s most bizarre pronouncements, this one is beyond the pale.The more cynical interpretation is that this is yet another “hey, look, a squirrel!” moment—a desperate attempt to shift attention away from something Trump does not want us talking about.
And what might that be? Elon Musk, the man who, for all intents and purposes, has become the de facto leader of the United States.As Trump flails, Musk consolidates influence over everything from communications infrastructure to artificial intelligence policy. This is not conspiracy theory; it is a simple observation of power dynamics. Musk has positioned himself as a critical gatekeeper of information as he wields remarkably practical power that seems to increase every day, like a video game character ingesting some fortnightly recharging pill.Musk’s control over Twitter (or X, as he insists on calling it) gives him a platform more powerful than the White House press office. His Starlink satellites determine internet access in active war zones. His AI projects are shaping the future of technology, while Trump is rambling about beachfront real estate developments in an active war zone.In a functioning democracy, the president would be the one setting the national agenda. Instead, we have Trump, a man seemingly incapable of engaging with reality, making unhinged proclamations while Musk increasingly dictates the terms of American technological and economic policy. The contrast is jarring. One of these men is an erratic, impulsive narcissist with a tenuous grasp on reality. The other is Elon Musk—or Trump, depending on your fancy—whose own instability and unchecked power are a separate but equally urgent problem.If any other world leader suggested something this ridiculous, the global response would not be mockery—it would be alarm. Imagine if Emmanuel Macron announced that France was going to take over Sudan and turn it into a luxury ski resort. Imagine if the prime minister of Japan declared plans to transform war-torn Ukraine into a theme park. These statements would not be treated as mere political bluster; they would spark serious discussions about mental fitness and capacity to govern.Yet with Trump, we still hesitate to say the obvious: this is not normal. This is not the behavior of a rational leader. And unlike his first term, where guardrails existed (however weak), his second term is unfolding in an environment where no one is willing or able to rein him in. The result is chaos and as The New Yorker predicted in November, a revenge-themed word tour—wild policy swings, erratic decisions, a presidency that already feels like it is teetering on the brink of collapse.As the New York Times asserted Monday, it has taken TWO WEEKS for the second Trump administration to descend into farce. The question is how much further it will fall before we stop pretending this is business as usual.A Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, Aron Solomon, JD, is the Chief Strategy Officer forAMPLIFY. He has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was elected to Fastcase 50, recognizing the top 50 legal innovators in the world. Aron has been featured in Newsweek, The Hill,, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, CBS News, CNBC, USA Today, ESPN, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, Venture Beat, The Independent, Fortune China, Abogados, Today’s Esquire, Yahoo!,ABA Journal,Law.com,The Boston Globe, and many other leading publications across the globe.The views expressed in this article are the reader’s own.
