Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday that President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem shows Trump is taking action in an area in which prior presidents did nothing.
“Other presidents said they’d do this and they didn’t,” Mnuchin told Fox News in Jerusalem Monday. “It’s been over 20 years since Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, and the president’s making good on it now.”
“I think the president is taking action,” he added. “And whether this, or … the nuclear deal, or with North Korea, this president is taking action.”
Mnuchin is there with other White House officials and several Republican lawmakers to celebrate the new embassy, which is a refurbished building. Mnuchin said he’ll be the one pulling the rope at the ceremony to reveal the new plaque designating the building as the new diplomatic headquarters for U.S. officials in Israel.
The event was also being marked with new violence. More than a dozen Palestinians were reportedly killed, many by Israeli troops, as they protested in Gaza against the new embassy.
