Donald Trump has mixed up Jersey City with Palestine

Politifact gave Donald Trump a “Pants on Fire” rating for his recent comment about the attacks on the World Trade Center.

“And I watched in Jersey City, N.J. where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down,” Trump said. “Thousands of people were cheering.”

That’s one of the reasons Trump mistrusts Syrian refugees or Muslim refugees of any kind.

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George Stephanopoulos asked if he really meant what he said.

“I saw it,” Trump said. “It was on television.”

“You saw that with your own eyes? Please say it didn’t happen.”

“George it did happen,” Trump responded. “There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down …”

I don’t know if you caught that, but in talking with Stephanopoulos, he was no longer saying thousands and thousands were cheering, he was just saying there were people cheering.

It’s very difficult to find evidence of that. What Politifact did find was two references to people cheering on in September of 2001. There was an AP report describing rumors of rooftop celebrations of the attack in Jersey City. But the same report said those reports were unfounded.

The next day, the Washington Post reported police questioned a number of people holding rooftop parties as they watched the smoke rise across the river, but there is no report or video of “thousands of people” celebrating the attack.

There was a rumor about celebrations in Paterson, N.J., but when police showed up all they found was Muslims praying. It could be that Trump has gotten Jersey City confused with Palestine.