CrossFireArabia
Former US President Donald Trump claimed to have been to Gaza – although there is no evidence of him ever visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that was broadcast on Monday, the Republican nominee in November’s presidential election said that he had been in the tiny coastal strip.
Asked by Hewitt if Gaza could be transformed into Monaco if properly rebuilt, Trump replied, “It could be better than Monaco. It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything. It’s got, it is the best, I’ve said it for years,” according to the Quds News Network.
“I’ve been there, and it’s rough. It’s a rough place … before all of the attacks and before the back and forth what’s happened over the last couple of years.”
He went on: “I mean, they have the back of a plant facing the ocean, you know. There was no ocean as far as that was concerned. They never took advantage of it. 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.”
The New York Times said there was no record of Trump ever having gone to Gaza – either when he was president or before.
The paper quoted a campaign official, who claimed: “Gaza is in Israel. President Trump has been to Israel.”
Asked by Axios to provide further explanation, Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, responded in an emailed statement that the former president “has been to Gaza previously”, although she did not say when.
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.”
