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U.S. President Trump Says U.S. To Rebuild Gaza And Turn It Into The "Riviera Of The Middle East"; U.S. Postal Service Suspends Parcels From China And Hong Kong; Worst Mass Shooting In Swedish History; Trump Administration Begins Sending Migrants To Guantanamo Bay; Trump Offers Vision Of Long-Term Ownership of Gaza; Toddler Evacuated From Gaza For Urgent Medical Care. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired February 05, 2025 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: In fact, here's Commissioner Roger Goodell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: We got into the diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we're going to continue those efforts because we've not only convinced ourselves, I think we've proven ourselves, that it does make the NFL better.

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COATES: Thank you all for watching. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" is next.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A one state, one resort peace plan.

Hello, I'm John Vause. Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The riviera of the Middle East. This could be something that could be so -- this could be so magnificent.

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VAUSE: President Donald Trump wants the U.S. to own Gaza and transform utter devastation into luxury property. But only once all Palestinians are forced out.

Let the tit-for-tat tariff war begin.

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TRUMP: We're going to do very well against China and against everybody else.

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VAUSE: President Trump brushing off new Chinese tariffs on American imports. And why did a lone gunman shoot dead at least 10 people at a school in Sweden?

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: When most look at the destruction and rubble of Gaza after 15 months of war, they see desperation and tragedy. The U.S. president, though, sees potential luxury beachside property possibly occupied by U.S. forces and built after the two million Palestinians who lived there are resettled in unspecified neighboring countries.

The U.S. president made this stunning announcement during a joint news conference with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit the White House since Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term.

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TRUMP: The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. 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. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.

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VAUSE: While the Israeli prime minister did not endorse the plan directly, he had nothing but praise for Donald Trump, saying he was the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.

Live to Abu Dhabi now. CNN's Paula Hancocks.

So, Paula, the U.S. president, predicted this plan to own Gaza would bring stability to the region. So at this early point, what's been the reaction from the Palestinians and across the region?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, if you put aside the legal and ethical issues with this plan, you do hear great resistance from those in the region. Just recently, the U.S. president had suggested that Jordan and Egypt, for example, could take more Palestinian refugees. They have already millions within their countries, and that was very strongly pushed back against by both those countries, also by other countries in the region, saying that's simply not the way forward.

And so this is what we will be hearing with this plan as well. We've already seen a statement on X from the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry. Now you know that the U.S. president is quite keen to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, to expand his Abraham Accords. But Saudi Arabia has made it very clear that this would not happen unless there was a guarantee for a Palestinian state.

In the statement, they also said that Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. So making it very clear that that their ideas of what should happen to Palestinians have not changed. Now, we're also going to, I imagine, throughout the day here, push

back from a number of other countries within this region. We've already heard from Hamas unsurprisingly rejecting this, saying that it would be a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region. But certainly what we have seen and heard from two Arab diplomats who spoke to CNN shortly after this press conference, one saying that this was a shock that he had said it, another pointing out that this could actually jeopardize the ceasefire in Gaza at this point, and even jeopardize the normalization of Israel with other Arab nations that Donald Trump carried out in his first term.

For example, the UAE, that this could have some devastating impacts on that. So certainly the response has been swift and it has been strong -- John.

VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks live for us in Abu Dhabi.

[00:05:04]

David Sanger is a political and national security analyst for CNN. He's also author of "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West."

Welcome back. It's good to see you.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be with you, John.

VAUSE: OK. So there could be a few issues with this plan put forward by Donald Trump. The U.S. occupation of land in the Middle East. Questions like this.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 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?

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Just like U.S. forces would be greeted as liberators in Iraq and the stability that would bring, what are the chances that U.S. occupation of Gaza would stabilize the region? And to that question, what authority does the U.S. have for this?

SANGER: Well, not much. But then, you know, you made the point about Iraq and there wasn't a whole lot of authority there either. Even the kind of U.N. resolution that the U.S. had looked for.

Look, John, this is what happens when you bring a real estate developer who comes to these problems with an experience of 40 years of building buildings, and you drop them into territory like this. We see wreckage and the misery and the long history of the Palestinians living in Gaza. And he sees beachfront property that, you know, once the mines are cleared and the wreckage is gone, could become a beachside resort that he said all peoples, including Palestinians, would live in.

What he's working his way around here is how do you persuade the Palestinians to leave their land? So many have left already, and there have been arguments about their right of return. And what do you do if they won't leave? Because the Geneva Convention is pretty clear that you cannot forcibly move a population off of their homeland.

VAUSE: So here's a little more from Donald Trump about his vision for Gaza, and what it could actually potentially be from a real estate point of view.

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TRUMP: We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And 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 something that could be so -- this could be so magnificent.

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VAUSE: Yes, there are vague similarities to the U.S. Marshall Plan rebuilding Europe after World War Two. Vague, but the U.S. didn't demand all the Europeans leave first before the plan got underway. And does this now mean that Gaza is on the same list as Greenland and the Panama Canal, you know, targeted for possible U.S. invasion?

SANGER: You know what it reminded me more of, John? Not a possible U.S. invasion. This reminded me more of his plans for North Korea. At one point during his negotiations with Kim Jong-un in the president's first term, he put together a film for Kim Jong-un and basically said, if you give up your nuclear weapons, this is what your coast along the North Korean coast that faces Japan could look like.

And it was this vision of big tower. It looked like Miami Beach. I remember he showed this to a group of us at one point. Well, needless to say, Kim Jong-un neither gave up his nuclear weapons nor took the plan. But it was basically the same thing. You can have the beautiful hotels, you can draw in everyone.

Now, he is not saying that the United States should take this by force, an option he left open when I asked him about it in Mar-a-Lago in regard to the Panama Canal and Greenland. But at a moment that, you know, many politicians believe we should be leaving the Middle East when Donald Trump, in fact, rose in part politically out of his critique that we shouldn't have been in this war to begin with, the idea that you would put American troops back in the middle of Gaza, I suspect, is going to be a pretty hard sell.

VAUSE: Well, since the Oslo Peace Accords, since they were signed back in 1993, the U.S. has had one consistent solution for the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Here it is.

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GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: My vision is two states.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Living side by side.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: In peace and security.

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VAUSE: A two-state solution may not be perfect. It is obviously still on the table. It hasn't worked out, but there is a reason why it's been the only plan for so long. Because at this point, nothing else has worked.

SANGER: Thats right. So this is the one state, one resort solution, right? Where he said, well, Palestinians could come back in, but so could the rest of the world.

[00:10:02]

But I think what he envisions is sort of, you know, luxury housing, I'm not entirely sure how the current Palestinian population, as they look across the wreckage of the past year, would afford that. And I'm not sure he's really thinking that much about it. Steve Witkoff, his Middle East advisor, took a little tour of Gaza and said this is going to take 15 years to clear it out and to rebuild it. And he may not be wrong about that. The question is, what do you do with the Gazans?

VAUSE: Yes. Two million people who clearly, many, if not all, would prefer to stay in their homes and the land which they know, which, you know, we'll see what happens with this plan by Donald Trump.

David, good to see you. Thank you for your time, sir.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

VAUSE: Ten thousand Mexican troops are heading north to the border with the United States. A concession to the U.S. president in return for a 30-day delay in U.S. tariffs on imports from Mexico. The troops are being sent to tighten border security to prevent illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants entering the United States.

Canada also was given a reprieve on tariffs delayed until March in return for new border security measures. But China did not. And moments after the 10 percent U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods took effect, Beijing announced it would launch retaliatory tariffs on certain American products starting Tuesday.

The U.S. president now says he's in no rush to discuss the tariffs with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying they'll talk at the appropriate time. On Monday, Donald Trump said he'd be speaking to China within 24 hours. Meanwhile, we're now hearing word that the Postal Service, U.S. Postal Service, has temporarily stopped receiving packages coming from China and Hong Kong without an explanation.

CNN's Ivan Watson following all of this live from Hong Kong. Do we know what's going on behind the scenes here? What's the story?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it does look like the next step in these ongoing trade tensions, John, with this statement, very terse, coming from the U.S. Postal Service, as you just pointed out, saying that packages would not be accepted from China and from here in Hong Kong as well. Letters and flat documents, they are allowed to continue to come in.

Now, we don't know whether this is going to also affect courier services like FedEx or DHL, which we've reached out to hear an answer from this. But it comes on the back of an executive order that Trump issued last week that ended an exemption called a de minimis exemption, that allowed packages to be shipped into the U.S. and to not face customs inspections or duty fees if the value of the package was less than $800.

So why is this all important? Well, an important Chinese e-commerce business model exploits or exploited this exemption. You had fast fashion brands in China like Shein and Temu who were sending just enormous amounts of packages using this exemption into the U.S. That loophole now appears to be closing. There is a huge proportion of the de minimis exemption packages that move around the U.S., as it is right now, that come from China.

Again, that loophole appears to be closing, and this does look like the latest step in the ongoing trade tensions between Beijing and Washington -- John.

VAUSE: Ivan, thank you for that. Ivan Watson with the explanation on what's happening with the mail in Hong Kong. Thank you.

In a moment, new details about a mass shooting at a school in Sweden and fears the death toll could rise.

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VAUSE: A day after the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history, investigators are still searching for a motive. Why would a lone gunman shoot dead at least 10 people at a school for adult education? Police have said the shooting is not terror related and the suspect is among the dead.

CNN's Melissa Bell has details.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Some new details are emerging after the dreadful shooting that took place just after midday in the town of Orebro in western Sweden where a gunman went on the rampage at what we understand was an adult learning center but on campus where there are schools for children as well.

Police are saying that multiple people died in the attack and it was to a shocked nation in a country that so rarely sees school shootings or mass killings, that the Swedish prime minister spoke.

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ULF KRISTERSSON, SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We've today seen brutal deadly violence against completely innocent people. This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.

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BELL: Police say that the death toll could continue to rise, given that there are still several wounded people in hospital. They've also said that they're trying to figure out what this man's motive may have been. They say the perpetrator was a man and that they believed he was killed during that shootout itself.

The question of why he acted the way he did now at the center of the investigations that are ongoing. What police have said about him, though, is that he was not known to police services, nor do they think that there was a terror motive behind this attack, the worst in Sweden's history.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

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VAUSE: The CIA is now the first major National Security Agency offering buyouts to its entire workforce. A radical step as Donald Trump looks to shrink the federal government. Every employee at the Central Intelligence Agency can get about eight months of pay and benefits if they voluntarily quit their jobs.

[00:20:03]

Sources, though, tell CNN some areas of expertise are likely to be off limits and won't be eligible for the offer.

The Trump administration is planning widespread layoffs of federal workers, and those who don't take the buyouts could still face the possibility of layoffs.

The Trump administration has also begun deporting migrants to Guantanamo Bay, and it's not waiting to find out if the move is legal. President Trump says he wants to ship tens of thousands of undocumented migrants to the notorious detention center in Cuba. Mexico's foreign minister sent a diplomatic note to the United States, insisting that no Mexican citizens can be sent to Guantanamo Bay under any circumstances.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has details.

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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Trump administration sent migrants to Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday, the first military aircraft to carry migrants to the base. A Homeland Security official telling CNN that there were around 10 migrants on the flight with criminal records.

Now, all of this comes after President Donald Trump announced last week that he wanted to expand the facilities in Guantanamo Bay to house 30,000 migrants. Now, sources tell CNN that attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security and at the Pentagon have been assessing the legality of this because it is taking people off of U.S. soil to then send them to Guantanamo Bay.

It's an unprecedented step and different from how it has functioned before. For example, there is a migrant operation center on Guantanamo Bay. It has been used to temporarily house those who are interdicted at sea. Therefore, they have not been on U.S. soil. They are housed there and then repatriated. But this would be a new step, one that would have migrants housed on the base before they are repatriated to their origin country.

Now, there are still a lot of questions outstanding, including, for example, if people would have legal access to legal service providers, as well as how long they would be held there. The Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying that they would not be held there indefinitely, but certainly a lot of questions, because so much also hinges on scheduling and countries and whether they're willing to take back those repatriated nationals.

But sources tell CNN that planning is well underway. Marines have been there setting up tents, as has the Army. All of that going up multiple facilities to eventually house these 30,000 migrants.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.

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VAUSE: When we come back, a 2-year-old Palestinian girl finally arrives in Jordan for lifesaving medical treatment, but not before a harrowing weeks long journey to escape from war torn Gaza.

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[00:26:59]

VAUSE: Welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause, and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

More now on our lead story, Donald Trump's plan for post-war Gaza. During a joint news conference with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump laid out a jaw-dropping vision involving the U.S. taking over the territory and building luxury property, but only after the two million Palestinians who lived there are resettled in neighboring countries.

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TRUMP: The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. It's been an unlucky place for a long time. Being in its presence just has not been good, and 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.

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VAUSE: Soon after those comments, Saudi Arabia reaffirmed its unwavering support for a Palestinian state. Last week, Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt reiterated their commitment to building Gaza and ensuring, quote, "the continued presence of Palestinians in their homeland."

More details now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny reporting in from the White House.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for several hours, American President Donald Trump making a robust assertion that the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip, essentially developing it into a -- the riviera, as he described it, of the Middle East, sounding more like a real estate investor that he once was than an American president that he now is.

The president did not rule out sending U.S. troops to the region.

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TRUMP: As far as Gaza is concerned, we'll do what is necessary. If it's necessary, we'll do that. We're going to take over that piece and we're going to develop it.

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ZELENY: In a remarkable press conference from the East Room of the White House on Tuesday evening, President Trump took many questions but left many answers about what this could do to the ceasefire that is now underway in the Middle East. Of course, the whole point of this meeting with Netanyahu and Trump was to talk about the second phase of this ceasefire, hostages as well. But there is no question the president's assertion that the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip certainly hangs over everything and overtakes and overshadows everything as well.

Now, there are many questions about this. Of course, Trump rose to power here in the U.S. through his criticism of Middle East engagement, of course, after one of America's longest wars, but did not rule out reinserting U.S. troops as well. Never mind the historical problems with all of this. This is indeed the homeland of the Palestinian people. But the president said the U.S. should own it.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

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VAUSE: Even amid a ceasefire, there's no end to the pain and the suffering in Gaza. A Palestinian toddler in need of lifesaving medical treatment in Jordan was forced to wait weeks, simply for permission to leave the territory.

[00:30:09]

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has more now on this little girl's journey out of Gaza. And a warning: her report contains some disturbing images.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rana is preparing her baby girl for the big day. Habiba is finally leaving Gaza for lifesaving treatment.

This is what the wait has done to the 2-year-old. The black and shriveled skin you see is gangrene that has worsened dramatically in a matter of days.

We followed Habiba's fight for her life for weeks. After our CNN report, Jordan heard her cries for help and decided to evacuate her for treatment for a suspected rare genetic condition.

But it took nearly two weeks, time Habiba doesn't have, to make it happen. The negotiations with Israel described as difficult by Jordanian officials.

Israeli authorities did not respond to CNN's repeated requests for comment on the delay in Habiba's evacuation.

Over the past week, as her mother helplessly watched Habiba teeter between life and death in intensive care, Rana had to also go through a roller coaster of emotions.

As they prepare to leave for an evacuation that was later canceled. Rana got crushing news Israel would not let her leave Gaza with Habiba, forcing this mother to make an impossible choice to let go of Habiba to save her life.

"Dear Lord, if this is your will, I'll accept it," she prayed. But it was just too much to accept.

Rana has to stay strong. She's Habiba's everything.

On Monday, they woke up to good news. Jordan had secured approval for Rana to travel with Habiba. But this time, just as they got ready to go, they were told her son no longer had Israeli permission to leave.

"You're a big boy. I know how hard this is for you," Rana says. "God will take care of you better than I ever will."

No one can make Habiba smile and forget her pain like her only brother, Soheib. He even brings out her cheeky side.

"I'm going to go and leave you," Habiba says.

But the thought of being left all alone is just terrifying for the 11- year-old.

"I don't know what I'll do without them. Where do I go now?" Soheib cries.

It's time to go. The ambulance is here. Soheib puts on a brave face for their goodbyes.

But soon after they head out, another twist: Soheib is cleared to join them.

Jordan tried to spare Habiba this harsh long journey by land, but Israel wouldn't approve a Jordanian airlift.

Across the border in Jordan, there's no time to waste. The military medevac chopper King Abdullah ordered is here for Habiba, ready for when she crosses into Jordan.

With nightfall, the moment they've been waiting for. Medics move fast to get the toddler. Habiba peeks out quietly from under her blanket, too young to understand what this is all about.

HABIBA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH (voice-over): As they head to the chopper, she wants Mama. They need to get her fast to the hospital, but they do it gently.

KARADSHEH: It's a quick trip to the hospital. The medical team is here and ready. They're going to be monitoring Habiba every second of this trip.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Biba's stable, but she's just arrived from an exhausting journey out of intensive care. For a shattered Rana, it's too early to feel relief.

As we get ready to take off, the team comforts Habiba. It's the first time this family is flying. Their first time seeing the world outside of besieged Gaza.

Habiba's story is one out of thousands of children who've become another faceless statistic of this war. Trapped in Gaza and deprived of lifesaving medical treatment.

On Monday, Israeli authorities said they approved Habiba's evacuation as a, quote, "exceptional humanitarian gesture."

As soon as she arrives at the hospital, medical staff begin what doctors in Gaza couldn't do. A full clinical diagnosis over the next 24 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two blood cultures.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Doctors here hope they'll be able to save Habiba's right leg and her arms, but they also fear it may be too late.

Her journey out of Gaza may be over, but another difficult battle now begins for little Habiba.

[00:35:00]

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Amman.

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VAUSE: The music industry has raised more than $120 million for wildfire relief efforts in the Los Angeles area.

Almost $25 million came from Sunday's Grammy Awards, adding to more than $100 million raised last Thursday at a concert headlined by artists like Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The money will go to charities in Southern California.

Well, it seems many South Koreans just can't leave home without it. Kimchi, that is. And according to officials at the airport there, almost 11 tons of kimchi was seized at Incheon Airport.

[00:40:02]

The salted and fermented vegetables may be revered as a national dish, but it violates the ban on liquid in carry-on bags.

Airport officials say much of the seized kimchi is donated to local charities.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more news. In the meantime, WORLD SPORT starts after a short break.

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