Donald Trump speaking at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 21, 2016. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — Donald Trump hasn’t ruled out visiting Israel before the election.
Speaking Wednesday at a news conference in Florida, where the Republican presidential nominee is campaigning, Trump responded to a reporter who asked whether he was going to Israel and noted that nominees traditionally take foreign tours between their nomination and the election.
“It’s a tradition, but I’m not traditional,” said Trump, a billionaire developer and reality TV star. But regarding Israel, he said, “I don’t know, I haven’t set my schedule.”
He said he had support from Israel and “I back Israel 100 percent.”
Trump added that “[President] Obama, in my opinion, is the single worst thing politically that could happen to Israel.”
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told the Washington Post in a story posted Wednesday that Israeli leaders had told him they prefer Trump over Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has pointedly kept his distance from partisan U.S. politics in recent months, categorically denied the claim.
Trump at the news conference outlined the issues that persuaded him to run, among them his anger at what he said was a bad nuclear rollback-for-sanctions deal with Iran, which he called “incompetent.”
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