This is just a follow up on the post we did this morning where Trump lied about then-Congressman Ron DeSantis’ efforts to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
As we told you this morning Trump was angry that DeSantis was ‘taking credit’ for the moving of our embassy to Jerusalem. That characterization of DeSantis ‘taking credit’ came from a die-hard Trump site that we won’t mention by name here. But I will say I think that characterization is wrong.
Again, the quote from Axios reporter Barak Ravid and it said “DeSantis presented the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem as his own achievement, saying he worked to “cajole” the former president to make the move. He didn’t mention former President Trump by name.”
DeSantis presenting it as one of his achievements is not the same thing as ‘taking credit’ for the move. I doubt seriously DeSantis took any credit away from Trump because the decision was Trump’s to make and he did it. But just because it was Trump’s decision to make doesn’t mean that there weren’t people like DeSantis pushing him to make the decision.
DeSantis was clearly active in pushing Trump to do this and I think the trip he led to Jerusalem in early 2017 to locate a site for the embassy indicates that. He also issued a statement of disappointment when Trump kicked the decision down the road:
But more importantly Trump did finally make the decision and during the celebration in May of 2018, the Trump’s Ambassador to Israel specifically recognized the efforts made by DeSantis when he highlighted a speech DeSantis had made the year before declaring this day would come:
Let me tell you something about this recognition he gave DeSantis that you won’t get from this little clip. I went back and watched the speech and Friedman went name by name in recognizing Israeli officials, Trump officials, Senators and Congressmen. He would say their names and the audience there would clap. Out of all these people, Ron DeSantis was the only person who Friedman actually spent a moment highlighting his contribution and I think that says a lot.
Last but not least, here’s someone from DeSantis’ inner circle who says the then-congressman spent countless hours working on this:
Sorry to belabor the point of all this, but there are some who simply refuse to accept the fact that Trump is lying about DeSantis on this issue. Just wanted to make the point of this clearer.