Trump: Gaza could be ‘better than Monaco’

Gaza could be rebuilt “better than Monaco,” the Mediterranean haven for the super-rich, former U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Monday.

The Republican presidential candidate made the comments in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, who asked him whether the coastal enclave, devastated by Israel’s yearlong military offensive, could be another Monaco “if it was rebuilt the right way.”

“[Gaza] could be better than Monaco,” Trump replied. “It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything.”

Trump, a former real estate developer, added that he had “been there” and it was “a rough place,” but The New York Times reported that there is no record of Trump visiting Gaza as president or as a businessman. A campaign official told the newspaper Trump had been referring to Israel, which Trump visited (along with the West Bank) when he was president in 2017. Gaza was occupied by Israel for decades but hasn’t been part of the country.

Trump’s remarks echo those of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said in February that Gaza’s “waterfront property … could be very valuable.”

One year into Israel’s military offensive, which has included airstrikes and a ground invasion, much of Gaza has been left in ruins, with a quarter of its buildings destroyed or severely damaged, according to the United Nations.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and at least 75 percent of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million displaced. The U.N. and World Bank estimated the cost of rebuilding Gaza’s critical infrastructure in April at $18.5 billion.