Fact check: No evidence for Trump’s claim he has been to Gaza

Washington (CNN) — After Donald Trump was asked in a Monday interview about the future prospects of Gaza, the former president made a curious claim: “You know, I’ve been there, and it’s rough.”

There is no public evidence of Trump ever having been to Gaza, which has been governed by militant group Hamas since 2007. He certainly didn’t go to Gaza as president, and CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post have all found no proof he made a prior visit.

Perhaps he merely meant he has been to Palestinian territory, since he did visit the West Bank in 2017? Or maybe he was just talking about having been to the broader region?

Nope.

Trump’s campaign said Monday night that he meant what he said about having been to Gaza in particular – and the campaign insisted the claim is true.

“President Trump has been to Gaza previously and has always worked to ensure peace in the Middle East,” campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told CNN.

Leavitt, though, did not provide a single detail about Trump’s supposed trip to Gaza. And she did not respond when we repeatedly asked for even the most basic information, like the year of the supposed visit.

So we were highly skeptical – because Trump has a long history of making things up, because of the lack of public evidence, because the Times of Israel has reported that Trump had never even visited Israel before his presidency, and because the Trump campaign had offered a substantively different comment to The New York Times earlier Monday.

That earlier comment, which a campaign official provided only on condition of anonymity, did not say Trump had actually been to Gaza. Instead, the anonymous campaign official tried some spin, correctly saying that Trump has been to Israel but wrongly saying, “Gaza is in Israel.”

We asked three former Trump officials who worked on Middle East policy whether they know of any proof for the former president’s claim, and the campaign’s claim to CNN, that Trump has been to Gaza itself. The only one who has responded, Trump-appointed former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker, said in an email: “As far as I know, he’s never traveled there. He did not go in 2017 when he visited Israel. I think this story is probably already over.”

Another wild goose chase

For years, Trump’s uncorroborated stories have sent us on fact-check wild goose chases – seeking everything from proof that he was years ago named “Man of the Year” in Michigan (he wasn’t) to proof that something terrible related to immigration had happened “last night in Sweden” in 2017 (nothing had happened).

This new hunt was equally fruitless.

Trump aides told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday that the former president privately said he did indeed to go to Gaza and that his comment in the Monday interview was not a mistake. But those aides were unable to provide any details about his alleged trip, including when he traveled, why he went or who he was with.

David Friedman, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Israel, and Jason Greenblatt, a former Trump Organization executive who became Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, did not immediately respond Tuesday to our requests for comment.

And since we were determined to give Trump associates and supporters every possible opportunity to substantiate the claim, we also took the rare step late Monday night of putting out a public request on X for any corroborating information.

As of noon on Tuesday, nobody had replied with any.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Alayna Treene contributed to this report.

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