Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was sworn in as the U.S. attorney general, and President Donald Trump suggests the U.S. could take over the Gaza Strip.

Pam Bondi sworn in as U.S. attorney general as Justice Department braces for major shakeup

Pam Bondi was sworn in Wednesday as U.S. attorney general, taking charge of the Justice Department as it braces for upheaval with President Donald Trump aiming to exert his will over an agency that has long provoked his ire.

The ceremony took place in the Oval Office, and it was the first time that the Republican president had participated in a second-term swearing-in of a Cabinet member. It was further evidence of Trump’s intense personal interest in the operations of the department that investigated him during his first term and then brought two since-abandoned indictments after he left office in 2021.

Before Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the oath of office, Trump praised Bondi’s record as a prosecutor and said she will restore “fair, equal and impartial justice at the department.”

Bondi told the president that she would not let him down.

“I will make you proud, and I will make this country proud,” she said.

“I will restore integrity to the Justice Department, and I will fight violent crime throughout this country and throughout this world, and make America safe again.”

The Senate confirmed Bondi, who was Florida’s first female attorney general before becoming a lobbyist, in a 54-46 vote Tuesday that was almost entirely along party lines. The lone Democrat to join Republicans was Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.

Republicans say Bondi will bring much-needed change to a department they believe unfairly pursued Trump through investigations and mistreated his supporters who were prosecuted in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

As attorney general, Bondi will oversee the FBI, which is in turmoil over the scrutiny of agents involved in Trump-related investigations. Trump has made clear his desire to go after his perceived adversaries.

Trump's proposed U.S. control of Gaza draws outrage from Democrats, skepticism from some GOP senators

President Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States take over the Gaza Strip and transform the war-ravaged Palestinian territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East” after relocating Palestinians “permanently” is drawing strong opposition and outrage from Democrats and world leaders, support from some key Republicans and skepticism from several GOP senators.

“We’ve got to stand in an unwavering manner with Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East. The strong and decisive move is an important step in that regard,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a news conference Wednesday, emphasizing the GOP stands with the president. 

Johnson said he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while he is in Washington to discuss whether the U.S. should take control of Gaza. He said the House is waiting for details on “what exactly that looks like,” but leaving Gaza in its current form runs the risk of another Oct. 7, 2023-style attack either by Hamas or another affiliate of Iran.

“It just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer,” Johnson said. “It’s common sense.”

Trump laid out his plan Tuesday evening during a news conference with Netanyahu, declining to rule out sending U.S. troops into Gaza and demanding that Arab nations accept the roughly 2 million Palestinians who call Gaza home. The president said he envisioned a future where “the world’s people” live in the territory “in a beautiful community that's safe and secure,” describing Gaza after more than a year of bombardment by Israel “a hellhole.”

World leaders and foreign ministries across the globe have denounced Trump’s plan, with many key allies and geopolitical adversaries issuing statements that the mass displacement of Palestinians is not an acceptable approach and reiterating their support for a two-state solution.

Republican support for Trump’s plan was echoed by some in the Senate. Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote on X that, “President Trump stands with Israel and is committed to ensuring historic and lasting peace. He will eliminate Hamas terrorists and create economic prosperity.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a longtime ally of the president known for his aggresive foreign policy, did express some hesitancy, but said he’d keep “an open mind.”

“I think most South Carolinians would not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza,” Graham told Jewish Insider.

And Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a conservative generally opposed to U.S. involvement in conflicts abroad, said the U.S. has “no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood.”

“I thought we voted for America First,” Paul wrote.

Most Democrats in both the House and Senate strongly disagreed with Trump.

“Palestinians aren’t going anywhere,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrote on X. The first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, Tlaib added that “this president can only spew this fanatical bulls--- because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing. It’s time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up.”

Texas Rep. Al Green also described Trump’s proposal as “ethnic cleansing” in a speech on the House floor on Wednesday and said he planned to introduce articles of impeachment against the president. Though Trump was impeached twice during his first term when Democrats controlled the House, the likelihood of an impeachment inquiry with a Republican-controlled Congress is unlikely.

“Ethnic cleansing is not a joke, especially when it emanates from the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world,” Green said. “When he has the ability to perfect what he says, ethnic cleansing in Gaza is no joke, and the prime minister of Israel should be ashamed knowing the history of his people, to stand there and allow such things to be said.”

“Ethnic cleansing has been a crime against humanity,” Green added, punctuating his remarks by periodically thrusting his walking cane into the air.

The war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, making it by far the deadliest round of fighting in the history of the conflict. The initial Hamas attack killed some 1,200 Israelis.

The war has forced some 1.7 million Palestinians — around three quarters of the territory's population — to flee their homes, often multiple times. That is well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war that resulted in Israel’s founding. Palestinians call that expulsion the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe.”