Donald Trump Insists Israeli Settlement Building on Occupied Land Must ‘Keep Going’

Image by Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has come out in favor of Israel building new settlements in occupied territory.
Trump told the Daily Mail in an interview on Monday that the construction must “keep going” and “keep moving forward.” There are “thousands of missiles being launched into Israel,” he said Monday. “Who would put up with that? Who would stand for it?”
Trump had said last year he would like to initially remain “neutral” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But ahead of Tuesday’s Indiana primary and his pitch for Jewish voters in what could be a close election in November, Trump sang a different tune, clearly seeking more support from conservative Jewish voters.
When asked whether there should be a pause in settlement construction in territory Israel captured in the Six-Day War but where Palestinians seek to establish their own state, Trump replied:
“No, I don’t think it is, because I think Israel should have – they really have to keep going. They have to keep moving forward.”

Image by Getty Images
“No, I don’t think there should be a pause,” Trump said. “Look: Missiles were launched into Israel, and Israel, I think, never was properly treated by our country. I mean, do you know what that is, how devastating that is?”
“With all of that being said, I would love to see if peace could be negotiated. A lot of people say that’s not a deal that’s possible. But I mean lasting peace, not a peace that lasts for two weeks and they start launching missiles again. So we’ll see what happens,” Trump added.
“I’d love to negotiate peace. I think that, to me, is the all-time negotiation,” Trump said, in reference to stalled peace talks.
Asked about his relationship with Netanyahu, Trump called him “a very good guy” for whom he had made a campaign ad in 2013.
“I don’t know him that well, but I think I’d have a very good relationship with him,” Trump said. “I think that President Obama has been extremely bad to Israel.”
“And I don’t even understand where – I have Jewish friends that support Obama. I tell them all the time, I say, ,What are you doing? The Iran deal is a disaster for Israel’.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump nominee Ed Martin, who praised a Nazi sympathizer, also compared Biden to Hitler
-
Opinion RFK Jr. and Trump are talking about an ‘autism registry’ — this sounds disturbingly familiar
-
Fast Forward Heavy police presence blocks anti-Israel protest in Brooklyn from reaching Jewish neighborhood
-
Yiddish קאָקני־ייִדיש“: אַ פּאָדקאַסט, אַ לשון און אַ שטײגער לעבן‘Cockney Yiddish’: A podcast, a language and a way of life
צװײ לאָנדאָנער היסטאָריקערינס לעבן אױף דאָס ייִדישע „איסט ענד“ אין אונדזער פֿאַנטאַזיע
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.