Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Thursday during a speech in Israel that he previously attempted to "cajole" the Donald Trump administration to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
DeSantis delivered the keynote address at the Celebrate the Faces Israel event held at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel.
The governor spoke of his history supporting strong U.S.-Israel ties, dating back to his time as a congressman. Florida experienced 269 recorded antisemitic incidents in 2021, according to the Anti-Defamation League, representing a 42 percent increase from 2021 and an all-time high.
"The history and the connection are simply incomparable and that's one of the reasons why, when I was a U.S. Congressman, I was an outspoken proponent, an advocate of relocating our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," DeSantis told the gathered crowd in Jerusalem.
"When we were trying to cajole the previous [Donald Trump] administration to do it, I actually launched a very small delegation over here. We looked at a bunch of different sites. We had a big press conference to announce that this was going to happen. We were confident, and there was a plethora of possibilities to be able to do."
He mentioned chairing a congressional hearing in the fall of 2017 that led to the eventual relocation of the embassy, calling it "probably the most attended congressional hearing of my congressional career" and something purportedly acknowledged as important by elected lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
DeSantis never specifically mentioned Trump, who in December 2017 formally announced his intention to move the embassy to what he deemed was the real Israeli capital—a move that at the time was vociferously ridiculed by Palestinian leaders and pro-Palestinian groups.
The move went into effect on May 14, 2018.
"President Trump made a campaign promise in 2016 that he would move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and he did just that," Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump 2024 campaign, told Newsweek via email. "Ron DeSantis is trying to cajole and gaslight others into thinking he had anything to do with that.
"It's sad that he has diminished himself in such a tiny way where he has to outright lie about the facts to bolster his thin resume."
A DeSantis spokesperson did not comment to Newsweek regarding DeSantis' remarks in terms of "cajoling" the Trump administration to move the embassy, only saying his entire speech should be taken into account.
No response was received regarding the statement made by the Trump campaign.
DeSantis made the trip abroad as he faces adversity at home, notably in the form of a new lawsuit filed Wednesday by Disney against DeSantis and other government officials due to new DeSantis-proposed legislation that would void past agreements between the company and its potential developers.
The lawsuit comes as speculation continues to mount on whether DeSantis will wage a 2024 presidential campaign, in which he would likely be considered the second-most popular Republican candidate behind Trump.
Four GOP operatives reportedly told NBC News that DeSantis will launch an exploratory committee with a target date of mid-May.
On Thursday, Trump posted a new Emerson College poll on Truth Social that shows him leading DeSantis by 46 points, 62 percent to 16 percent. Other GOP candidates in the poll included Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley—who garnered 7 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
A Quinnipiac University poll published March 29 showed Trump leading DeSantis by 10 percentage points in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, 52 percent to 42 percent, which is about the same margin from a month earlier.
"The GOP nomination is Trump's to lose, and while the general populace may not hold the former president in high regard, he still maintains the strongest levels of support of all the potential GOP candidates among the group who will actually choose the nominee: Republicans and those who lean Republican," Ryan LaRochelle, a lecturer at the Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service at the University of Maine, told Newsweek via email.
Lisa Parshall, a political science professor at Daemen University, told Newsweek via email that the front runners on both the Democratic and Republican sides are "vulnerable"—President Biden in terms of low approval ratings, and Trump based on multiple lawsuits levied against him.
Both candidates' ages have also concerned the American public, she added.
"A large primary field would help Trump just as it did in 2016," Parshall said. "While his hold on the party is weakening, there's a floor of support for him that has proven unshakable. Plurality support and the absence of an alternative that the whole party coalesces around may well once again advance him to the nomination, assuming there's no dramatic turns with the pending legal cases."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
