GOP mega-donor Adelson offers to pay for part of Jerusalem embassy: AP

The Trump administration is considering accepting donations from casino magnate and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson to help fund a new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, The Associated Press reports. 

State Department officials are now examining the possibility of accepting funds for all or most of the planned embassy from Adelson, four officials told the AP. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday signed off on a security plan for the move, the officials said. 

Adelson is a fervent supporter of Israel who donated over $20 million to the Trump campaign in 2016 in exchange for Trump’s word that he would move the U.S. Embassy to the holy city.

The billionaire’s offer was to cover the difference between the total cost of the embassy and what the administration was able to put forward for its construction, one official told the AP. 

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The donor offered funding for the embassy at about the same time that the president announced in December that the embassy would move to Jerusalem and that the United States would officially recognize that city as Israel’s capital.

Administration officials are considering repurposing an existing U.S. facility in west Jerusalem instead of building a new embassy, which could possibly allow embassy staff to begin operations there as early as 2019.