WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he is "committed to buying and owning Gaza", and that the United States may let other nations in the Middle East rebuild the war-torn enclave.
"I'm committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it, other people may do it, through our auspices. But we're committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn't move back," Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One en route to New Orleans, Louisiana, to attend the National Football League Super Bowl championship.
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Last week at the White House alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump proposed "long-term ownership" of Gaza by the United States.
His proposal has stirred widespread criticism and is opposed by several Arab nations as well as US allies in Europe.
'Billions of dollars of fraud and abuse'
Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday that he would instruct Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to find "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse" across Washington.
"I'm gonna tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education ... Then I'm gonna go to the military. Let's check the military," Trump said in a Super Bowl interview with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier.
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"We're gonna find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse," Trump said.
Earlier on Sunday, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told Fox News he "welcomes" DOGE's scrutiny of military spending.
"When we spend dollars, we need to know where they're going and why, and that has not existed at the defense department," he said.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office on Jan 20 to establish DOGE, an advisory committee led by Tesla CEO Musk. The committee, aiming to cut federal spending to restore government efficiency, has since been tracking where the money goes.
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The US Agency for International Development (USAID), a federal agency that oversees the country's global humanitarian aid and development programs, has become a particular target.
This move quickly prompted lawsuits from several government employee unions and oversight agencies, among others.
A federal judge early Saturday blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury Department records containing sensitive personal data, including Social Security and bank account numbers of millions of Americans.
