As French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel beat a path for the White House in back-to-back visits this week, the media coverage of U.S. – European Union relations is focused on efforts to convince President Donald Trump to keep faith with his predecessor Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Left largely unreported is that while the European leaders are is pressuring Trump to align his Iran policy with theirs, Macron, Merkel, and European Union Foreign Policy Commissioner Federica Mogherini are waging a multifaceted campaign to undermine and discredit one of Trump’s most significant foreign policy initiatives: namely, Jerusalem.
Since last December 6, when Trump officially recognized that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and announced his intention to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Macron, Mogherini, and Merkel have been leading a major effort to undermine his policy.
On May 14, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is set to lead a 250-member American delegation to Jerusalem to participate in the opening of the U.S. embassy in Israel’s capital. Forty lawmakers and other senior officials, reportedly including President Trump’s senior advisors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, are also set to join. Vice President Mike Pence and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley may join the delegation as well. READ MORE
