Former President Donald Trump implied that he visited the Palestinian city of Gaza—but no record of this trip exists, the New York Times reported. Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday, Trump agreed that Gaza, situated on the Mediterranean Sea, could resemble the ultra-wealthy European city-state of Monaco after the end of the Israel-Hamas war. “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. You know when—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.” Trump did not officially visit Gaza while he was in office, according to State Department records. He visited Israel, and he visited the Israeli-occupied West Bank to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Gaza is not contiguous with the West Bank and the territory has not been governed by the Palestinian Authority since 2007. Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Beast, but an anonymous Trump aide insisted to the Times that “Gaza is in Israel. President Trump has been to Israel.”
