President Donald Trump has been appreciative, if not surprised, evangelical Christians have been even more supportive of the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem than the Jewish people, he told TBN Christian network.

"I tell you what, I get more calls of 'thank you' from evangelicals — and I see it in the [rally] audiences and everything else — than I do from Jewish people," Trump told former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., a Christian minister in an exclusive interview. "And the Jewish people appreciate it, but the evangelicals appreciate more than the Jews, which is incredible."

Huckabee replied it is "not a surprise" because evangelicals "are people of the book" and have been supportive of President Trump's administrative policies and "fulfilling really 3,000-year old commitment to recognize Jerusalem as the capital."

"I think it's a nice thing to say because it really affects Jewish people in theory more, but as you say people of the book, people of the Bible," Trump said. "But the evangelicals really appreciate it, and that makes me feel good."

The embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite decades of unfulfilled promises of past administrations.

"The embassy was a big thing, but it was for many presidents before me," Trump told Huckabee. "Everybody campaigned that they were going to move the embassy and nobody did it, and I never understood why. I knew there would be pressure, but I never understood it."

The world-wide pleas to not got through with it had to be ignored in the final weeks and days before the move, President Trump said.

"Once I did it, it was something very special," he added. "It's an important event."