Trump’s A.I. dream for Gaza is the golden calf, Samson and Nimrod rolled into one
The baffling video with gold Trumps and feasting Elon Musks is a meme fit for a biblical king
The A.I. video shows Trump Gaza, which will probably have a casino. Photo by Screenshot
By PJ Grisar February 26, 2025
In the Book of Judges, after spending an evening with a sex worker, Samson uproots the gates of Gaza and hauls them all the way to Hebron on his shoulders.
Now, a different sort of strongman — with a notably less impressive coiffure but an alleged affinity for sleeping with adult models — is proposing something far more garish for the devastated enclave’s teardown: a giant gold statue of himself, bearded belly dancers and, perhaps most disturbing of all, the world’s richest man savoring what looks to be shakshuka on the beach.
This all comes courtesy of an A.I.-generated video on President Trump’s official social media accounts, which shows the rubble of Gaza, with children in tatters running from armed militants before asking, in bold red, white and blue letters “What’s next?”
Cut to a ragged opening of a tunnel or cove, through which we glimpse the gaudy future: high-rises, luxury cars cruising palm-lined boulevards and Elon Musk digging into some kinda hummus bread bowl. There are yachts, cabanas, and a child holding a gold lamé balloon of Trump’s head.
The Golden Calf has nothing on this, nor does the manna from heaven hold its value, in 2025 dollars, to Musk literally making it rain cash while monied guests applaud from their beachside tables.
The video is chilling for its echoes of historical expansionism and imperial imperative and also Trump’s typical casino and hotel gambits (many doomed). But the presentation would also seem to indicate a lack of vetting from Trump, as it is hard to imagine him giving the greenlight to a shirtless image of him, sipping beer — he’s famously sober — by a pool with Netanyahu, with a body that has less than a 12-pack and more than a bit of paunch.
“No more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here,” a club-ready tune promises.
But as appalling and uncanny as it all is, it also betrays a garbled policy on Gaza, which Trump initially wanted to rid of around 2 million people to make way for his “Middle East Riviera.”
Who are these children and mothers traveling through the cove and onto the beach with its pristine skyscrapers? Are they Gazans watching the redevelopment of their land, only to be expelled before they can partake of this glitzy playground for the rich?
It’s not clear if the many kids and adults we see reveling in Trumptopia are Israeli, Palestinian or American. That would matter more if this video, which features the president dancing with a Kardashianesque woman, was an actual proposal and not just one more meme tossed to Trump’s terminally online base.
“Trump Gaza” may as well be Camelot, Xanadu or any other mythic compound — until it’s not — but it most resembles, in a sense, the story of Nimrod’s Babel.
When Nimrod tried his hand at building a tower to the heavens, God made it so the builders couldn’t communicate, the origin story for the polyglot, multinational world. Trump is no Nimrod — his sons are the hunters — but his mixed messages have the entire international community on its toes.
Not everyone speaks Trump’s language, and that makes it hard to know when to take him seriously. The golden future promised is probably just gilded-over nonsense, but it could also be for real.
“Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top to the sky, to make a name for ourselves,” goes the quote in Genesis 11, “else we shall be scattered all over the world.”
If Trump follows through with his plans for Gaza — and slaps his name on it as promised — it’s those who had no hand in the building who may end up scattered.
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