Former Trump hotel chief calls president's wild Gaza video ‘scary' dictator ‘theater'
After President Donald Trump posted a bizarre AI-generated video of what the Gaza strip would look like if he were to follow up on his real-estate development plans to transform the war-torn region into the 'Riviera of the Middle East,' the former president and chief operating officer of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City called it 'scary.'
Jack O'Donnell, who worked for Trump for three years, told CNN's Erin Burnett Wednesday that he believes the president is 'amused' by his idea to gold-wash Gaza. The 35-second video, which Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday, depicts a gold-plated cheesy resort-like strip where Elon Musk throws cash in the air and Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lounge in beach chairs in swim trunks.
'No, he's not serious about this. I think he's amused by it, and I think he knows it will get a reaction from people, and that's what he wanted to do here,' O'Donnell said. 'This is theater, and I don't think he's serious, although I think he does love the image that it portrays of him, as some sort of savior,' he added, pointing out the bearded belly dancers in the clip.
But O'Donnell also agreed with Burnett, and said 'it's scary' because it's the kind of megalomaniacal vision dictators have of themselves.
Burnett mentioned the golden statue of Trump, who recently declared himself a 'king,' in the middle of a palm tree-lined street. She said the AI-generated statue was reminiscent of a golden statue of former Turkmenistan dictator Saparmurat Niyazov.
O'Donnell pointed out: 'Others have done this — other dictators. Mao did it, Kim Jong Un still does it, Saddam Hussein,' he said. 'The list goes on of dictators who have put themselves on a pedestal.'
O'Donnell said the thing that surprised him the most about the video was the scene of Trump sitting shirtless on a lounge chair with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
'We know how vain he [Trump] is, and there's actually a scene in here where he's sitting on the beach, and he's rather rotund in it,' O'Donnell smirked.
An upbeat song plays in the background that strikes a tone incongruent with the savage year-plus-long war that raged in Gaza up until last month. The lyrics say: 'Donald's coming to set you free, bringing the life for all to see, no more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here.'
The video comes weeks after Trump announced that the U.S. will 'take over' and develop the Gaza strip, once all the Palestinians have been cleared out, calling it 'a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades.' He vowed it could be turned into a 'really magnificent area.'
Trump's vision has been slammed as ethnic cleansing.
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