Some Senate Republicans expressed cautious interest in President Donald Trump’s plan for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza — at least as a negotiating gambit — after an initial wave of confusion and opposition. But other Republicans remained stridently opposed to the proposal and most opposed Trump’s calls for U.S. military intervention.

Some senators framed Trump’s proposal as a tool to reshape discussion and thinking in the Middle East about the path forward for Gaza.

“He’s looking outside the box. He’s a real estate developer. He gets the value of it, and if he can tell other people that there’s a value in it, maybe they’ll think twice about trying to have Hamas as their spokesperson,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told reporters.

“I think he’s making everybody in the Middle East suddenly realize there could be a real valuable piece of property there, and that there is a future for that strip of land,” Rounds continued. “But they can’t do anything if they don’t have peace, and that means you’ve got to get back to a point of the other people in that region recognizing that there’s a value there as well if Hamas is eliminated.”

Rounds, however, rejected Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. could send troops to occupy Gaza, which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated on Wednesday.

“I don’t think right now that’s the discussion,” Rounds said. The senator also said that Egypt and Jordan cannot, as Trump has demanded, take in the entire population of Gaza.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said in response to Trump’s plan that he was “glad to see that President Trump is standing unshakably with Israel and making clear that Hamas dominating Gaza is not acceptable.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said that Trump is “a visionary builder. He sees beachfront property and has big ideas and floats those ideas,” but also said that the idea of the U.S. actually taking over Gaza would be impractical, given that it’s “owned by another country and a sovereign nation.” 

He said he was skeptical that Trump actually plans to invade the territory.

“I do think he floats these big ideas to see what happens, see what shakes out. Maybe he gets asked to help redevelop or rebuild Gaza and what his ideas might be, what United States interests might be,” Cramer continued. “I take it seriously but I don’t know what he means specifically by it.”

“I’m not big on it, obviously,” he continued. “These are the kinds of things that we would only do, I would hope, at the invitation of the country and they haven’t invited us yet.”

Other senators remain outright opposed to Trump’s plan.

“There’s enough turmoil there currently,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, “I’ve been on the phone with [Arab leaders] all day. That approach, I think, will be very problematic … So I would suggest we go back to what we’ve been trying to do: destroy Hamas and find a way for the Arab world to take over Gaza and the West Bank in a fashion that would lead to a Palestinian state that Israel could live with.”

Graham also said, after meeting with Republican colleagues and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, “the idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a nonstarter for every senator.”

The top Trump ally also refuted the president’s claims that Saudi Arabia no longer demands a pathway to a two-state solution as a condition of normalizing relations with Israel.

“The Arabs have said very clearly they would recognize Israel, but they want a pathway to a state. Israel has to decide if that’s in their interest. I do believe the parties can find some accommodation, but the idea of moving everybody out of Gaza is a non-starter in the Arab world,” Graham said. “This puts a lot of pressure on our Arab allies, and at a very sensitive time. So I’ve been working on this for two and a half years.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said he was still waiting for Trump to clarify his Gaza plan, and that Witkoff had not done so during his meeting with Senate Republicans.

“I’m not going to vote to spend any American taxpayer money on rebuilding Gaza,” Kennedy said. “That’s just one person’s opinion, but in your natural lifetime or mine, you will not see me voting to take American taxpayer money and rebuild Gaza. That’s not America’s responsibility.”

Another Senate Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they didn’t think “practically speaking, anyone thinks this [Gaza takeover] could work with U.S. boots involved. But I also don’t think [Trump] is kidding. That’s the weird thing.”

While some Democrats are taking the proposal as a serious concern, others, like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), have described it as a distraction from other moves by the Trump administration.

Murphy said he didn’t “have the luxury” of thinking about Trump’s foreign policy decisions at this moment in time. 

“I think right now we have to be laser-focused on the destruction of our democracy. I have no ability to impact American foreign policy if in the next three weeks the democracy of this country disappears,” Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told JI.

“He’s not doing a nuclear agreement with Iran. He’s not invading Greenland. We’re not taking back the Panama Canal. We’re not occupying Gaza,” Murphy continued. “This is all intended to distract Americans and distract the pundit class and the press from the actual things that are happening, which is the destruction of our democracy, which is the thievery of our data at the Department of Treasury, the illegal and unconstitutional shutdown of spending in agencies.”