Former President Donald Trump claimed in a radio interview that he has been to Gaza even though no record of such a visit exists.
The comment, which Trump made in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that was broadcast on Monday, came in response to a question about whether the occupied territory, which Israel has largely razed to the ground over the last year, could be developed to “be Monaco, if it was rebuilt the right way?”
“It could be better than Monaco. It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything,” Trump responded. “I’ve been there, and it’s rough. It’s a rough place, before the, you know, before all of the attacks and before the back and forth what’s happened over the last couple of years.”
Asked to clarify, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign told the New York Times that “Gaza is in Israel. President Trump has been to Israel.”
Gaza is not, nor has it ever been “in Israel.” The Palestinian territory has been illegally occupied by Israel, as well as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, since 1967.
Israel withdrew its army and settlers from Gaza in 2005, under a policy that the Israeli government at the time dubbed “disengagement.” But Israel remains an occupying power in Gaza under international law, as its military continues to retain effective control of its borders, airspace and coastline.
The Israeli military has invaded the territory again for the last year following the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Although false claims are not uncommon from Trump, it was unclear if these were deliberate lies or whether they just revealed his lack of knowledge about the region’s geography.
Trump visited Israel and the occupied West Bank in 2017, his first year in office, and met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the time. The West Bank and Gaza are separate occupied territories, only reachable to each other by travelling through Israel — something most Palestinians are not allowed to do.
Trump’s comments about Gaza echoed those made by his son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner earlier this year. Kushner had called Gaza’s waterfront property “very valuable.”
In the interview with Hewitt, Trump also referenced Gaza’s oceanfront location.
“They never took advantage of it,” he said. “You know, as a developer, it could be the most beautiful place – the weather, the water, the whole thing, the climate. It could be so beautiful. It could be the best thing in the Middle East, but it could be one of the best places in the world.”
