President Trump boasted in a tweet early Friday morning that he fulfilled a campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital after his predecessors had failed to do so, posting a video featuring past presidents’ remarks on the matter.
“I fulfilled my campaign promise — others didn’t!” he wrote on Twitter, posting a montage of former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Each of those presidents, however, never made any formal declarations regarding the city’s status and signed national security waivers every six months keeping the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Tel Aviv.
{mosads}Trump moved this week to declare Jerusalem Israel’s capital, and said he would direct the State Department to begin the process of relocating the U.S. Embassy to the city — a pair of controversial decisions that could derail future peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Even as he announced his intention to move the embassy to Jerusalem — a process that would likely take years — he signed another six-month waiver allowing the facility to remain in Tel Aviv for the time being.
The 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act requires the U.S. to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem unless the president, citing national security concerns, signs a waiver to temporarily halt the move. Every president since then has done so.
In making his announcement on Wednesday, Trump held that he was “delivering” where other presidents hadn’t.
“While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver,” he said. “Today, I am delivering.”