Washington – The new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is going to cost a bit more than President Donald Trump had estimated. Make that nearly 100 times more.
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The Maryland-based firm Desbuild Limak D&K was awarded a $21.2 million contract to design and build “compound security upgrades” to the embassy, according to official documents uploaded this week, Al-Monitor reported. The U.S. has already spent $335,402 to refurbish the embassy, formerly a consulate, ahead of its May opening.
“We’re going to have it built very quickly and inexpensively,” Trump told reporters in March following his decision months earlier to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate the U.S. Embassy there. “They put an order in front of my desk last week for $1 billion. … We’re actually doing it for about $250,000, so check that out.”
Trump repeated this and similar claims numerous times, eventually raising the price to $400,000 during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“As the president stated, the cost of initial modifications made to permit the embassy to open on May 14 was approximately $400,000,” a State Department official told Al-Monitor. “Following the May 14 opening, we have moved on to planning for and construction of a new extension and security enhancements at the interim site.”
The $21.5 million total “is actually a lot for that considering that they have plans apparently to purchase a new facility,” an aide in the House of Representatives told Al-Monitor.
The Trump administration has not announced when it plans to begin construction on a permanent embassy.
Fake news is never happy . Lmasa he did it . And as I told many critics who asked what’s the big deal . It’s costly and difficult. That’s why it didn’t Happen on day one
This whole Move was a Giant Mistake as it only fuels the Arab world against the US.
Let’s send back the Embassy to Tel Aviv.
lol drumpf
Liberals love to spend other people’s money. Sad
Still cheaper than building a new embassy from scratch. Besides the us wastes much more money on stuff this is inconsiquencial. It is good for US and Israel and the world anyway
As usual Washington loves to waste money, I would bet that most of the improvements are for luxury of the occupants then necessities of running the embassy. Since they have 2 buildings one in Tel Aviv and now one in Jerusalem and they are going to build a 3rd building??? Talk about waste and guess who will have to pay for all of this, yes you the tax payers of the US. When it was reversed they didn’t seem to need all those so called improvements now they do??
I can only guess how much the Guatemalan, Honduran, Paraguay and Iranian embassies will cost?
I guess the Real estate mogul who is ‘like, very smart” is not even good at estimating rehabbing a property, not to mention being hoodwinked by Putin. I wonder if he trusted his Real Estate partners as much as he trusts Putin.
Wasted money BIGTIME!
These are the true magnitude of his lies “100 fold”