President Trump said Tuesday night he worried he might have looked âcheapâ for saving hundreds of millions of dollars on the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, so he told his staff to âget the good marble.â
While speaking at a dinner at Trump Hotel to supporters of his fundraising group America First, the president said he told U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, âYouâre making me look cheap. Get the good marble. Spend $400,000,â Axios reported.
Trump has touted the fact that he was able to bring the cost of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem into an existing building for just a few hundred thousand dollars when it was projected to cost $1 billion for a new building.
Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital this way was controversial, and was criticized at the United Nations. During the day of the dedication ceremony, violent protesters in Gaza stormed Israel’s border â more than 50 Palestinians were killed, and almost 3,000 were injured.
