Steve Doocy on Trump Gaza takeover plan: 'He knows the United States can’t invade another country'

Fox News host Steve Doocy cast doubt on President Trump’s comments suggesting the U.S. take over Gaza, a strip of land in the Middle East that has been plagued by war between Israel and Hamas for months.

“I think this is just the tip … you know, this is the conversation starter because, obviously, the president knows when he says ‘we’ll take Gaza,’ He knows the United States can’t invade another country,” Doocy said Wednesday on “Fox & Friends.”

“The last thing he wants to do is put boots on the ground in Gaza. I mean, you know, he is always … in his first term, he was talking about he would like to get out of every war in the Middle East,” he added in comments first highlighted by Mediate.

Trump during a joint press conference Tuesday alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of Gaza: “I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place… I don’t want to be cute, I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East… this could be so magnificent.”

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job — whether we’ll 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,” the president added.

His comments sparked nearly instant backlash and condemnation from the international community and Democratic lawmakers alike.

Doocy said he “was going to give Trump the benefit of the doubt” and floated the idea that Trump’s comment could have been “the first step in a negotiation.”

“I think this was his opening salvo, first idea,” the cable news host said. “A lot of people saying you can’t do it. But maybe they could add to it and come up with something because the way it’s working is not working.”