President Trump has made the eminently sensible suggestion that the Gaza Strip be restored and developed under some form of US guidance or ‘ownership’.

His proposal is that the Strip become ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’.

Perhaps the President had in mind the superb example of  Beirut, dubbed the ‘Paris of the Middle East’.

This lasted until, sadly, the Lebanon was brought down by the terrible 15-year civil war that erupted in 1975.

This was caused by exactly the same mentality that launched the depraved barbarian incursion into Israel on 7 October 2023.

In fact, the question has to be asked why the Gazans didn’t do precisely what President Trump now proposes when, in 2005, the Israeli authorities handed the Strip to them with the Jewish settlers moved out.

Since then, the Gazans have received billions and billions in aid from several sources, including the compromised Unrwa.

So why did the Gazans hand over the governance of the Strip to Hamas, the Iranian mullahs’ criminal proxy?

Why did the Gazans and the UN stand by while the aid received was embezzled so  Hamas bosses could live in luxury in Qatar, acquire rockets and weapons and construct a massive tunnel system solely to wage war on Israel?

Yet even with what has happened, the outrage by Hamas and the destruction of Gaza, both the Palestinians and the mainstream media dismiss and even ridicule the Trumpian Riviera solution.

They still argue for the ‘two-state solution’.

Anyone who intones a two-state solution should explain how this is feasible when the Palestinian side advances, under the mantra ‘from the river to the sea’, the agenda that Israel be dismantled and the Jews expelled.

Even when one prominent commentator seems to be coming around to some degree of appreciation of Donald Trump, he still appears astounded by Trump’s solution.

Greg Sheridan at the Australian writes  that, ‘Donald Trump has proposed the most astounding, outlandish, radical, gobsmackingly strange proposal of his entire life in suggesting the US could long-term “own” the devastated Gaza Strip.’

The fact is imperial rule, especially in the Anglo-American tradition, is highly pragmatic and often unplanned, appropriate when the British Empire  is said to have been  acquired ‘in a fit of absence of mind’.

An examination of the success of the informal British protectorate in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Egypt,  especially in reforming state finances, all while Egypt remained a province of the Ottoman Empire, demonstrates what could be dismissed as ‘astounding or gobsmackingly strange’.

But it worked.

President Trump is no doubt determined not to fall into the trap of thinking that doing the same thing will achieve a different result.

Doing this, according to a saying attributed to Einstein, is evidence of insanity.

Trump’s is the only solution on the table.

As the Strip is now so obviously a dangerous demolition site, the Gazans, conveniently stripped of their Hamas terrorist overlords, would need to be relocated.

Gaza dragged attention away from other activities of the new administration which excited attention but soon lost momentum.

A prominent example was President Trump  goading the Canadian Prime Minister into Canada becoming the 51st state.

Since then the prospect of even a trade war has disappeared.

At this point it is worth noting that the ridicule displayed over Trump’s anger concerning the Panama Canal is misplaced.

The late President Carter’s unwise gift of the canal to Panama demonstrated that the American presidency works superbly  when the incumbent is worthy of such a high office.

But when the incumbent is just not up to the role, something more like the Westminister system could work better.

Remember in the last years of British leadership, the speedy transition from Chamberlain to Churchill.

Be that as it may, there is no possibility that the Americans will change.

The Founders, fascinated with the British monarchy and perhaps actually believing their exaggerations about George III in the Declaration of Independence, decided on an elected king almost impossible to remove during his term.

When Raymond Aron famously concluded the United States had become the ‘imperial republic’ and finally and reluctantly accepted the leadership of the West, the president became a king-emperor, a role that could have been designed for Donald Trump.

What inflames Trump is that the Panama government is close to communist China and has effectively handed over control of the canal to the Chinese, especially at both the Pacific and Atlantic ports, and in allowing them to build a bridge over the canal.

In the event of hostilities with Beijing, the communists could control the movement of  all US fleets.

In addition, the fee structure is such that charges discriminate against both US commercial and naval use of the canal.

All this is in breach of the treaty Carter negotiated, and under it, it is for the US to decide whether there is a a breach.

If a fundamental breach were found, a good legal case could be mounted to give effect to the reclamation of the canal.

In the meantime all these events demonstrate yet again that Donald Trump is a remarkable man, extraordinarily well suited to the role he is playing.

His instinct is superb.

Take one example.

During the campaign, a Nevada waitress who was serving him told him of the enormous trouble she had in keeping tax records concerning her tips.

Without hearing from pollsters or focus groups, or advice from lawyers and economists, he just took out a piece of white paper and noted his conclusion.

‘No taxes on tips.’

He announced it at one of the following campaign meetings. The crowd went wild.

This was nationally popular, and when Kamala Harris announced her candidacy, she made a similar promise without any attribution to Trump, of course.

There is no doubt legislation will soon be introduced on this.