Al-Sharaa Recalls New Jersey Joke to Trump Over Golan

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said he once joked to U.S. President Donald Trump that he should give New Jersey to Israel rather than the Golan Heights, arguing that Trump had no authority to give away territory he did not own. Al-Sharaa recounted the exchange at an Atlantic Council event in New York held alongside the United Nations General Assembly. The conversation took place during al-Sharaa’s White House visit in November 2025, according to his account. He said Trump had raised the Golan Heights, where the United States recognized Israeli sovereignty in 2019. Al-Sharaa responded by suggesting New Jersey, adding that the state was home to many Democratic voters who did not support Trump. He later stressed that the comparison was a joke and that neither the Syrian nor U.S. president could decide the territory’s future. The Golan Heights has been at the center of a longstanding dispute. Israel captured most of the area from Syria in 1967 and extended Israeli law and administration there in 1981. The United Nations considers it occupied Syrian territory. The U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty under Trump differed from the prevailing international position.