Of all the truly brilliant ideas that Team Trump has come up with, I now have my personal winner: The plan for the U.S. to seize Gaza and bless it with a vast real estate development project, announced by Trump — and with a squirming Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, seated next to him to boot? Sheer genius.

Can’t we see it now? A Mar-A-Lago-inspired resort along the lines of Dubai, a kind of playground for Russian oligarchs and friends. And how about a garish, visible-from-space neon sign flashing “Trump Gaza Plaza?”

In the Trump tradition of benevolence showered upon subordinates, this U.S. exclave could supply its essential labor by enslaving Palestinians, living in primitive conditions, just as we did (and some of us would like to continue doing) with Black folks of African descent to provide them with an extended job training program.

Sounds almost too good to be true. It now makes me wish that I had voted for Trump. In my defense, it’s often difficult to appreciate genius because the ideas that spring from it are so far ahead of their time.

But the historic moment has arrived. Make Gaza Philistine again.

Galin Elias Franklin
Waterville