President Trump dared the United Nations Wednesday to vote against his decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, saying “we’ll save a lot” in foreign aid cuts for countries that cross his administration.
“We’re watching those votes,” Mr. Trump said at a Cabinet meeting of a pending U.N. vote. “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted Tuesday night that the administration will be “taking names” of nations that vote against the administration’s embassy move and Mr. Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The U.S. also vetoed a resolution by the U.N. Security Council on the matter.
“I like the message that Nikki sent yesterday at the United Nations,” Mr. Trump told Ms. Haley in the Cabinet meeting. “For all of those nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the Assembly — they take hundreds of millions of dollars, and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us.”
He warned, “This isn’t like it used to be, where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows what they’re doing. So Nikki, that was the right message, and you and I agreed to be sent yesterday. I’ve had a lot of good comment on it. People are tired of the United States, people that live here, our great citizens, they’re tired of this country being taken advantage of and we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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