Last night Trump told another big lie about Governor DeSantis related to his trip to Israel.
In a post on his Truth Social Trump lambasted DeSantis for ‘taking credit’ for moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, claiming he had nothing to do with it. Trump claims it wasn’t even on DeSantis’ mind, accusing him of ‘the kind of disinformation I thought only the Democrats would put out’:
DeSanctimonious had nothing to do with Israel, or the moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Never so much as mentioned it to me—It was the last thing on his mind. DeSanctus wasn’t even Governor yet (It was December 6, 2017), and I barely knew him—He has turned out to be a total flameout! This is the kind of disinformation I thought only the Democrats would put out. No wonder DeSanctus is dropping like a rock in the Polls. Terrible!
At issue is a quote in Axios by their Israeli reporter, where he says “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.”
This is the news that Trump is responding to, but it turns out that DeSantis wasn’t lying and he did work to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. It wasn’t the ‘last thing on his mind’ as Trump claimed. Via Community Notes on Twitter:
President Trump on DeSantis trying to take credit for moving the embassy to Jerusalem: pic.twitter.com/g76XHDtZvJ
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) May 1, 2023
As Community Notes correctly points out, DeSantis not only cosponsored legislation in 2015 to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, he actually led a mission to Israel to search for a proper location for the US Embassy in March of 2017:
US President Donald Trump will likely decide to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the head of a Congressional fact-finding mission into a possible relocation said on Sunday.
The small delegation, headed by Representative Ron DeSantis of Florida, the only congressman on the trip, visited three possible locations in Jerusalem, and determined that the main US consulate building on 14 David Flusser Street, in the capital’s Arnona neighborhood, appears best suited to house the American embassy.
“I think it’s going to happen,” said DeSantis, who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee for National Security, which is in charge of security arrangements for US diplomatic missions across the globe. “To see this happen 50 years after the liberation of Jerusalem is going to be exciting for a lot of people in the US, and I know it’s going to be very exciting for a lot of Israelis here in Jerusalem.”
When Trump finally did begin the process of moving the embassy to Jerusalem that December, after having deferred moving it in June, he listed DeSants along with other Congressman who supported his action to move it.
Trump accuses DeSantis of putting out “the kind of disinformation I thought only the Democrats would put out”, but it turns out Trump is the one putting out disinformation and lies.
If Trump truly wants people to vote for him over DeSantis, assuming DeSantis runs, then why blatantly lie about DeSantis like? Why can’t Trump just acknowledge DeSantis efforts to support his decision to move the embassy? Or at the very least, he could just ignore it altogether and not say a word. That would have been far better than what he did…