Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Trump To Block Moving U.S. Embassy To Jerusalem In New Flip-Flop

Breaking a campaign promise that had excited pro-Israel activists, President Trump has reportedly decided to sign a waiver postponing the relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Senior administration officials told CNN on Wednesday that Trump will follow the path of his predecessors and sign the biannual waiver on Thursday to postpone the implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which mandates that the embassy must be in Jerusalem.

They stressed, however, that Trump has not given up on his promise to relocate the embassy and still intends to do so when conditions are ripe. “It will be when, not if,” one official told CNN.

The bill, which was passed nearly unanimously in 1995, requires the State Department to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in an move seen as an attempt to bolster Israel’s claim over the city, which it designates as its capital. But ever since, presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama used the waiver option to postpone implementation due to national security reasons.

The otherwise dormant issue came to a head following Trump’s campaign promise to immediately move the embassy.

Now, with the previous waiver stands to expire on June 1, Trump has been forced into making a decision.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.