But when disaster strikes, there is no money to help Americans. Any more winning with Trump and we will soon be a third-world nation with no money to give, but one that is extorting other countries to provide us with cash or risk being annihilated. Maybe we can take vessels loaded with oil and convert them to cash or demand that the owners pay us to get them back.
Trump administration insiders and well-connected Republican businesses have been jostling to dominate pending humanitarian aid and reconstruction logistics in the shattered Gaza Strip, according to sources and documents reviewed by the Guardian.
With three-quarters of Gaza’s structures damaged or destroyed by two years of Israeli strikes, the rebuilding effort to come – estimated at $70bn by the United Nations – could be a rich prize for companies that specialize in construction, demolition, transportation and logistics.
But there’s no way to issue long-term contracts for reconstruction or humanitarian aid yet: a Board of Peace, chaired by Donald Trump, was endorsed by the United Nations to administer the territory but is not yet in operation. And the mandate of the new Civil-Military Coordination Center is limited.
Parallel to these official efforts, the White House has established its own Gaza taskforce led by Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Aryeh Lightstone.
The Guardian has learned that two former Doge officials – once assigned to Elon Musk’s effort to slash government and fire federal workers in bulk – are leading the group’s conversations about humanitarian assistance and the postwar reconstruction of Gaza. They have circulated slide decks with detailed plans for logistics operations, including prices, financial projections and the locations of potential warehouses.
US companies are gathering for the spoils. One contender, the Guardian has learned, is Gothams LLC, a politically connected contractor that won a $33m contract to help run the notorious south Florida detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”, where immigrants are housed in tents and trailers.
Documents and three people familiar with the plans say that the contractor had an “inside track” to secure what might be the most lucrative contract it’s ever had.
