US President Donald Trump said at a White House press conference on Friday that he may attend the opening of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14th, and he’s “very proud of it.” Israeli officials were very surprised by the news, as it was understood that he previously had decided to not attend.
Trump also gave some behind the scenes details regarding the embassy’s building.
Originally, he had been given a quote of a billion dollars to build a new embassy in Jerusalem, which would be ready in ten years.
He was about to sign the papers when he called up US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman (“who’s a great lawyer”), and Friedman told Trump he could open it for $150,000. The US already owns the land and the building, they just need to fix it up, make it beautiful, and instead of 10 years, they could open it in 3 months.
Trump said, “Let’s not go from a billion dollars to $150,000, let’s go to three or four hundred thousand dollars, and that’s what we did.”
Israel’s Mako news quoted an unnamed US government official, who claims that Trump will be revealing his Israel-Palestinian Authority peace plan after the embassy opens.