Trump Touts Poll Showing Half of Gazans Want to Leave: ‘To Me It’s Common Sense’

During a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, President Donald Trump touted a new poll that showed half of the people living in Gaza would leave if given the chance.

“I heard that number today, half of Gaza would leave. I’ve always said it,” Trump asserted.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research surveyed people from across the Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank between May 1-4, according to Reuters. The poll was conducted some six weeks after Israeli forces resumed operations in Gaza.

“If you were given the opportunity to live in a better climate, they would move,” Trump said. “They’re there because they sort of have to be. I think it would be a great opportunity. But let’s see if that opportunity presents itself. We’re helping the people of Gaza a lot. So is Israel, by the way.”

“So we’ll see what happens,” Trump continued. “But I saw that — it was a poll. More than half the people would leave the given temperature opportunity. And I’ve been saying that for a long time. To me it’s common sense. To me it was common sense. So, it’s interesting.”

Reuters reported that the poll showed almost half of Gazans “may be willing to apply to Israel to help them leave to other countries.”

A reporter asked Trump, “Why wouldn’t countries accept them?”

“Look, let’s not talk about it because we don’t want the controversy right now,” Trump said. “We’re helping Gaza. But if they were given the opportunity, I think even higher than that, the person, the group that did the poll is usually, I call them negative pollsters. You have a lot of them. And yet this poll was, I think, very accurate. Other than it would be more than half the people if given the opportunity, but they haven’t been given that opportunity. So we’ll see what happens.”

At the beginning of his second term, Trump floated the idea of turning Gaza into a Dubai-style resort, complete with a “Trump Gaza” high-rise towering over the coastline.

Watch the clip above via CNN.