Trump Admits U.S. Embassy Move was "for the Evangelicals"
In a campaign speech in Oshkosh, WI, Donald Trump said that he moved the United States embassy (which he incorrectly identified as the capital) to Jerusalem to please Evangelical Christians:
“And we moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. That’s for the Evangelicals. You know, it’s amazing with that: the Evangelicals are more excited by that than Jewish people,” said Trump.
Breaking with decades of U.S. policy, the Trump Administration officially moved the United States Embassy to Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Only 46% of American Jewish voters supported the embassy move.
Trump’s admission that the move was designed to appeal to Evangelical Christian voters was unsurprising; He made a similar statement in 2018. Evangelical Christians have proven critical to Trump’s political success, and Israel holds a great deal of significance in evangelical theology about the rapture.
Trump’s explicit admission exposed that, despite platitudes about Jewish safety and the general (and antisemitic) public belief that Jews dictate pro-Israel American foreign policy, the real religious bloc such policy is designed to appease is Evangelical Christians.