After refusing to answer the question just one month ago, Donald Trump now says Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel.
The leading GOP candidate, who recently cancelled a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that was set to take place in January, was asked Tuesday whether believes Jerusalem is the capital of America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
“The answer is yes,” Trump said in an interview with The Hill.
Trump, who’s second in the latest Washington Examiner presidential power rankings, was heavily booed by a crowd of Jewish Republicans in early December after he declined to say whether the U.S. should designate Jerusalem “the undivided capital of Israel.”
“Can I at least try and pin you down on Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel?” an event organizer at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2016 presidential forum asked the billionaire at the time.
“You know what I want to do — I want to wait until I meet with Bibi … I just want to,” Trump said, referring to the trip that he later cancelled.
Two of Trump’s closest Republican rivals – Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio – co-sponsored legislation in 2015 that declared Jerusalem Israel’s undivided capital and aimed to move the U.S. embassy, which is currently located in Tel Aviv, to it.
