Remember when Trump said the new American embassy in Jerusalem would cost about as much as a townhouse in an average midwestern suburb or a large walk-in closet in New York City?
You may want to sit down before reading this, but that was complete bullshit.
Officials records show that upgrading the temporary embassy to suit diplomatic needs will cost nearly 100 times more than Trump claimed.
Al-Monitor first reported on the filing, which occurred on July 9 and shows that the State Department granted the Maryland-based Desbuild Limak D&K a contract worth $21.2 million to design and construct “addition and compound security upgrades” at the embassy. [...]
“They put an order in front of my desk last week for a billion dollars. I said, ‘A billion? What’s that for?’ ” Trump asked. “We’re actually doing it for about $250,000."
Of course the financial cost isn't anywhere near as important as the moral and political cost of thumbing your nose at most of the world just to please Benjamin Netanyahu and the evangelical end-times preachers who shine Mike Pence's shoes.
It's possible Trump truly believed upgrading the new embassy would be that cheap because sometime around 1979, when Trump last had a coherent thought, it may have actually been that cheap.