Donald Trump is not a man in the habit of backing down.

His astonishing proposal to “own” Gaza and relocate two million Palestinians has faced unanimous opposition from America’s allies, but the president now has a plan and woe betide anyone who gets in the way. And that includes international law.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of the fighting,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump latest: Netanyahu backs ‘remarkable’ Gaza idea

Nevermind that Gaza is not Israel’s land to turn over.

“The Palestinians… would have already been settled in safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”

Nevermind that most countries in the region have angrily opposed this suggestion.

Aware, perhaps, that the prospect of US troops being sent to Gaza, possibly for decades, would meet opposition in Congress, Trump added “no soldiers by the US would be needed!”

Well that clears one question up. But who would be responsible for security in Gaza then?

Local police officers who are affiliated to Hamas? Private security contractors made of former American soldiers, operating under rules of engagement set by who?

While most of the world is recoiling at all this, in Israel they are leaning into it. Hard.

The defence minister, Israel Katz, has ordered the IDF to prepare plans to allow Gazans to leave by land, sea or air. This is being framed as voluntary migration, giving Gazans the freedom to leave for a better life elsewhere.

Some might. But what if most don’t. Then what?

Voluntary migration sounds nice and all, but how voluntary would it be, really?

Read more:
White House appears to row back on Gaza proposal
What you need to know about Trump’s Gaza plan

Palestinians, human rights organisations and others argue that after 15 and a half months of constant bombardment, Israel has left Gaza uninhabitable and so any departure would be down the barrel of guns that have been pointing at them for almost a year and a half.

Faced with all this, Trump, Netanyahu and their ministers continue to insist that only they know what’s best for Gazans.

Has anyone actually asked the people of Gaza?

Australia is the latest market to report a significant drop in Tesla sales for the first month of 2025, and in this case, the automaker can’t blame the Model Y changeover.

Earlier this week, we reported on European markets releasing car sales data for January, showing a massive drop in Tesla sales.

Tesla sold roughly half as many cars in Europe in January 2025 compared to January 2024.

Most industry watchers agree that there are two main reasons behind the sharp decline:

• Elon Musk’s meddling in politics and spreading misinformation on social media is driving people away from Tesla
• Tesla is transitioning Model Y production to the new design, which is affecting production and sales

Now, Australia is reporting its car sale numbers for January 2025, and it shows that Tesla is also having issues in this market.

In the first month of 2025, Tesla delivered only 739 vehicles – down 33% year-over-year.

This time, Tesla can’t blame the Model Y changeover as Model Y deliveries were actually up 20%.

Model 3 is the problem. Sales of Tesla’s cheapest model were down 63%.

This has been Tesla’s trend in Australia for the last year. In January 2023, Tesla delivered more than 2,000 vehicles in the country, but now it can only deliver a few hundred units. In 2024, Tesla’s sales dropped 17% for the whole year.

Electrek’s Take

At this point, it’s fairly clear that Tesla’s sales will be abysmal in Q1. Tesla will use the excuse of the Model Y changeover, and it will undoubtedly be partly true, but I think the Elon effect is also be a significant part of Tesla’s sales problem.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to calculate, but in the case of Australia, we can see that it’s part of the problem with the model breakdown.

Australia is not a huge car market and it won’t have a major impact on Tesla, but the trend appears to be similar in most markets.

The US is the biggest wildcard, as Elon still has a lot of fans there, obviously. US data is a bit more opaque and it will take a while for us to see an impact, if any.