U.S. President Donald Trump says he rejected a plan to spend $1 billion on a new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and plans to open an embassy in the capital for less than half a million dollars.
Trump says he had started signing his name to a proposal when he noticed the eye-popping $1 billion price tag and immediately called it off. Trump says U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told him it could be done for a mere $150,000.
Trump says he didn't want to go that low and approved spending $300,000 or $400,000 instead.
Rather than building a new structure to house the embassy, the U.S. is retrofitting a small part of the current U.S. consular facility in Jerusalem so that the embassy can open quickly.
As far as the opening ceremony itself, scheduled for May 14, Trump said he "may go" but there has been no official White House confirmation that the president will attend.
CNN reported this weekend that Trump's son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner would be at the embassy opening.
Trump also said that while other presidential candidates had promised to relocate the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, he was the only one to follow through and issue the order to do so.
Meanwhile, President of Paraguay Horacio Cartes announced that he intended to move his country's embassy to Jerusalem before the end of his current term in June. Cartes made the announcement at an event marking Israel's 70th Independence Day.
