President Donald Trump insists that moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will be fast, easy, and cheap — just a fraction of what experts estimate it will cost.

In a speech Friday in which he recounted a conversation with David Friedman, Washington’s ambassador to Israel, Trump determined that the embassy — which he unilaterally, and to great international criticism chose to relocated to Jerusalem, disputed territory for Palestinians and Israelis — would cost only $150,000:

I said, “What’s this one billion?” He said, “I can build it for $150,000.” I said, “What?” He said, “I can build it for $150,000, the embassy. We have a building, we have the site, we already own the site, we own the building. I can take a corner of the building, and for $150,000 we can fix it up, make it beautiful, open our embassy — instead of in 10 years from now, we can open it up in three months.” And that’s what we did.

Well, not really.

The Washington Post notes that he’s made this promise before, in March. Only then he said that a temporary space for the embassy would cost around $250,000 rather than $1 billion.

“Now, it’s temporary, but it’ll be very nice. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars versus a billion dollars. Is that good?” he said.


Despite the enthusiasm of Israeli authorities, who have fast-tracked permits for a new building, the best-case scenario for the stated May 14 deadline, is a tight, temporary office. The new embassy will not be ready for some time — however much it’ll cost — since officials haven’t even found a site for it yet.

Still, neither this, nor the weeks of unrest that has seen Israeli soldiers shooting and killing Palestinians protesting to take back land they say was illegally taken from them (the U.N. has condemned this excessive use of force), has dimmed Trump’s enthusiasm for the endeavor.

In fact, he said he might attend the opening ceremony of the new office. The new embassy will likely be in a new area Israeli authorities are building to house other embassies — even though 128 countries used their votes in the U.N. General Assembly to condemn Trump’s decision.

Among the names being considered for the new embassy quarter? Trump Town.