Today, at a joint press conference with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump announced that the United States is going to seize the Gaza Strip, traditionally home to Palestinians, force the people who have been living there to leave, clear the area to the ground, and create it as an American-owned real estate development for Israelis to live in.

This is what President Trump said:

Donald Trump:

“It should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there. Instead, we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza. This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, twelve. It could be numerous sites or it could be one large site. The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative. It's right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.

The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We will 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.”

Reporter:

“Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Prime Minister. You are talking tonight about the United States taking over a sovereign territory. What authority would allow you to do that? Are you talking about a permanent occupation there? Redevelopment? And Mr. Prime Minister, do you see this idea as a way to expand the boundaries of Israel and to have a longer peace, even though the Israeli people know how important that land is to you and your citizens, just as the space is inherited by the Palestinians as well?”

Donald Trump:

“I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East. And everybody I have spoken to, this was not a decision made lightly, everybody I've 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 in a really magnificent area that nobody would know, nobody could look, because all they see is death and destruction and rubble and and demolished buildings falling all over. It's just a terrible, terrible sight. I've studied it. I've studied this very closely over a lot of months, and I've seen it from every different angle, and it's a very, very dangerous place to be, and it's only going to get worse. And I think this is an idea that's gotten tremendous and I'm talking about from the highest level of leadership, gotten tremendous praise.”

This announcement will utterly delight Christian Nationalists for the very same reason that it will terrify everyone else.

For decades, Christian Nationalists have been agitating for the United States to get involved in a massive military conflict in order to expand the borders of Israel. The reason for this is that Christian Nationalists believe that their divine prophet Jesus can only return to Earth after Israel takes over more land, returning the country to the full territory it occupied in ancient times.

Christian Nationalists believe that the United States is destined to get involved in an enormous war, during which Jesus will return to lead America’s armies in a global bloodbath that slaughters everyone who refuses to convert to Christianity, and then be made king of the entire world.

Christian Nationalists don’t think that a bloody global war of religion would be a tragedy. They eagerly anticipate it, and they want American politicians to engage in belligerent actions that will provoke such a war, because they’re tired of waiting for Jesus to come back. They want to see Jesus as soon as possible, and they’re happy to start a big war in the Middle East in order to make it happen.

It’s obvious to anybody who understands the history of the two Gulf Wars that any attempt by the United States to permanently own and militarily control any territory in the Middle East will lead to disaster. The First Gulf War under George H.W. Bush was itself brief, but led to a long-term presence of the US military on bases in Saudi Arabia and in the air over Iraq. This military presence is what motivated Osama Bin Laden and his followers to attack the United States on September 11, 2001. That attack that led to the longest wars in American history, with a supposed “War On Terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan that lasted for over twenty years.

It’s been just a few years since America’s military has been home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and now, Donald Trump wants to begin the cycle of war all over again. Donald Trump says that everyone he’s spoken to tells him that a permanent American military occupation of the Gaza Strip is a great idea, but that’s only because Trump has surrounded himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear.

No serious historian or military leader can say that an American occupation of the Gaza Strip that begins with a forced ethnic cleansing of the land can be accomplished without massive bloodshed and a destabilization of the region leading to death and despair for the people in the area and any American soldiers unlucky enough to be sent on the insane mission.

Donald Trump is right when he says of Gaza that “it’s a very, very dangerous place to be”. So why would he send American soldiers there, to become targets of attacks from militant groups within every nation that surrounds Israel - and probably from the governments of those countries as well?

Sending American soldiers to Gaza in order to evict the people native to the area is a recipe for disaster. Christian Nationalists in America understand that, and that’s exactly why they support Donald Trump’s insane plan.

Christian Nationalists want Donald Trump to send American soldiers to occupy Gaza and conduct ethnic cleansing there because they want the current conflict between Israel and Gaza to escalate into a larger regional war, and then a global war to end all wars.

Christian Nationalists pray for this terrible violence because they believe it will bring about their Kingdom of God, which will enable Christianity to rule the entire world.

Donald Trump’s bizarre, meandering language in his announcement makes it obvious that he has no rational plan for how to make the permanent American seizure and ownership of the Gaza Strip work. He babbles:

“This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, twelve. It could be numerous sites or it could be one large site.”

It sounds as if Trump was just making up the idea even as he announced it. Tragically, there is little competent leadership left within the American military to execute his invasion and occupation of Gaza. Trump has already abruptly fired many of the Pentagon’s top generals, and has installed Pete Hegseth, a raging Christian Nationalist who can’t even manage to keep himself sober, as Secretary of Defense.

It’s a plan that seems designed to fail. It’s been cooked up to suit the religious obsessions of Donald Trump’s political base, not in order to solve any problems, but for the purpose of provoking a war that could become a literal Apocalypse.

Four years ago, Russell Vought, who is on the verge of being confirmed as the head of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote an article titled, “Is There Anything Actually Wrong With Christian Nationalism?”

Today, that question was definitively answered.

Sending American soldiers halfway around the world in order to purposefully to provoke a massive religious war is one thing that is very wrong with Christian Nationalism.