WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that he isn’t “going to take a position” on recognizing Palestinian statehood — and that his focus is on ensuring starving Gaza residents are fed amid the ongoing Israeli invasion. 

“I’m not going to take a position. I don’t mind him [British Prime Minister Keir Starmer] taking a position,” the president said when asked about Starmer’s assertion that recognition of a Palestinian state would be a step toward Middle East peace.

“I’m looking for people getting fed right now,” Trump added as he and Starmer prepared to meet at the president’s Turnberry resort on the west coast of Scotland.

“That’s the number one position, you have a lot of starving people,” he added. “The United States recently, just a couple of weeks ago, we gave $60 million. It’s a lot of money. No other nation gave money.”

Starmer recently announced plans to airdrop aid to Gaza and had joined dozens of Western nations in raising concerns about the dire conditions in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Trump also rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s denial of widespread hunger in Gaza, claims which he had called a “bold-faced lie.”

“Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry, but we’re giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up,” Trump said when asked whether he agrees with Netanyahu’s denial. 

Starmer dubbed the Gaza situation “desperate” and a “humanitarian crisis” and said people in Britain are “revolted at what they’re seeing.”

“Nobody’s done anything great over there,” Trump replied when asked whether Israel has done all it can to stem the crisis. “The place is a mess. It’ll get straightened out, but it’s a mess. They have to get … food and safety right now.”

“And ultimately, look, Hamas did a horrible thing [on Oct. 7, 2023,] and they paid a big price, but Hamas did a horrible thing,” he added before addressing the status of hostages held by the terror group. “I always said, when you get down to the final 20, they won’t release them, because it’s like their shield, very unfair, and so something’s going to have to be done.”

Starmer stressed during his meeting with Trump that “we have to get to that cease-fire,” and the president underscored that “we want to get the children fed.”

“We have to help on a humanitarian basis before we do anything,” Trump added. 

While meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, Trump complained that the US wasn’t getting a “thank you” for the humanitarian aid it marshaled for Gaza and claimed he took political heat for giving the aid.

Over the weekend, the Israeli military began allowing airdrops of aid into the coastal territory and announced plans to establish humanitarian corridors for United Nations convoys to enter. 

The Israel Defense Forces characterized its shift as “aimed at improving the humanitarian response” in Gaza and to “refute the false claims of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”

More than 250 trucks filled with aid from the UN and other groups entered Gaza on Saturday, less than the roughly 600 trucks per day that entered during the previous cease-fire that fell apart in March.