Donald Trump says that if Americans ever get tired of him, he will pack up and become prime minister of Israel. He made the comment Tuesday during a phone interview with Fox News, on the same day voters across the country headed to the polls for the midterm elections.
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“I’m at 99% approval rating in Israel, can you believe it?” Trump said. “In fact, if people ever got tired of me in the U.S., I’ll move to Israel and become prime minister. Think of it: I’m at 99%, I have the highest approval rating of anybody in history!”
The remarks came while he was talking about the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, including American aid to the country.
Trump did not say which poll he was citing, and no public survey showing anything close to 99% has surfaced. A recent poll from the Jewish People Policy Institute, an Israeli research group, found that just 10% of Israelis said they had a great deal of confidence in Trump when it comes to relations between the two countries.
His numbers at home tell their own story. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Monday put his approval rating in the U.S. at 32%, close to the lowest of his career.
This is not the first time Trump has talked about becoming prime minister of Israel. In May, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before heading to a Coast Guard graduation in Connecticut, he made almost the same claim. “I’m right now at 99% in Israel. I could run for Prime Minister, so maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel, run for Prime Minister,” he said at the time. A New York Times/Siena poll from that period had his U.S. approval at 37%.
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The job would not be as simple as moving there. Israel’s prime minister is the head of the government and is chosen from members of the Knesset, the country’s parliament, and serving in the Knesset requires Israeli citizenship.
