Does Congress Have to Approve Trump's $10 Billion Gaza Pledge? What To Know

U.S. President Donald Trump has promised a $10 billion investment to help rebuild Gaza after years of violence between Israel and Palestine, though broader questions about congressional approval remain unanswered.

Trump touted the United States’ intentions during the inaugural meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace on Thursday at U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters, which now bears the president’s name. Along with the U.S. pledge, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates pledged a combined $7 billion contribution. International soccer organization FIFA pledged a $75 million initiative to fund sports infrastructure projects in Gaza.

The president called the board’s efforts the right way to move forward to “achieve the dream of bringing lasting harmony to a region tortured by centuries of war, suffering and carnage,” referring to the board as the “most consequential … in terms of power and in terms of prestige," while adding it would “strengthen up the United Nations."

He also claimed that the “war in Gaza is over” despite multiple ceasefire violations, though violence has been mitigated overall since the deadly October 2023 attacks by the militant group Hamas on Israelis sparked the ongoing conflict.

But the president, who spoke for roughly 47 minutes and addressed the all-male leadership in the room, never specified whether Congress approved the announced $10 billion or where the money would come from.

Military.com asked the White House about congressional approval and whether U.S. taxpayers should have a say through the legislative branch of where the money comes from and how it’s spent.

“President Trump was proud to welcome representatives from over 40 nations to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Thursday for a big announcement on Board of Peace actions to establish an enduring peace in the Middle East,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Military.com. “Since the president and his world-class team ended the war between Israel and Hamas last October, we have maintained the ceasefire, delivered historic amounts of humanitarian aid, and freed every single living and dead hostage.”

Congress, and in particular the House of Representatives, has traditionally been invested with the “power of the purse,” which involves taxation abilities and spending U.S. taxpayers' monies.

Congressional Approval, ‘Slush Fund’ Concerns

Even though President Trump pledged $10 billion to reconstruct Gaza, where the complete costs of rebuilding have been already estimated by the Associated Press at roughly $70 billion, those monies need to be OK’d by the legislative branch.

“Congressional approval is still required if the $10 billion were to be allocated in a future budget,” Annelle Sheline, a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Military.com. “Trump could potentially try to reallocate existing defense funding or other sources, but he would likely be blocked by the courts.”

Aside from economic implications especially on American taxpayers, Sheline said there’s also political ramifications should the money be diverted to the president and/or his allies and administration.

Unfortunately, the large sums promised by various governments have the potential to become a slush fund that Trump alone controls and profits from, with little effect on the situation on the ground. The only long-term solution to the conflict is to address its underlying cause: the Israeli occupation.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who has acted as envoy for the administration in talks with nations including Israel and Russia, on Thursday to the media referred to many members of the Board of Peace team as “volunteers.”

“They’re doing this not for any personal gain. People are not personally profiting from this,” Kushner said. “They are really doing this for their children, their grandchildren because they want to see peace.”

Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, was asked Thursday on The Claman Countdown on Fox Business whether Israel should "be expected to even pay one penny to rebuild Gaza."

"Absolutely not, and if anything, there ought to be reparations to Israel for the extraordinary fight that they have had to conduct to get their hostages back," Huckabee responded.

Devil is in the Details

Paul Poast, an associate political science professor at the University of Chicago, told Military.com that pledges like these usually always sound good in theory; however, the minutia is in the details of where the funds are coming from and who is subsidizing them.

“They're making these commitments and obviously there's a lot of fanfare and it's easy to have this cost,” said Poast, also a senior nonresident fellow of foreign policy and public opinion at the Chicago Council on Public Affairs.

But the other question is kind of an absorption problem, which is even if you start bringing in this money, will it be able to be adequately used?”

He also said that while $10 billion is a good chunk of money, estimates to reconstruct Gaza remain just that—guesses based on current information—and could rise over the months or even years. In effect, the U.S. could eventually want to give more towards the Middle East.

“You're looking at anywhere from $50-$100 billion is what it's going to take to actually rebuild Gaza, and that's just a massive amount,” he added. “In many ways what you could say is that maybe this $10 billion will be a useful test case.”

“If they can actually start making use of it, that's going to be encouraging, but that's still far away from what is ultimately needed,” Poast added.