--- description: President Donald Trump told attendees at Thursday night's Hanukkah celebration at the White House that the party was "all about Jerusalem." title: Trump: White House Hanukkah Party Was 'All About Jerusalem' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt87c6a724bdcb92d6/6988f453929fadc4bdbeec7a/donald-trump-melania-hanukkah.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [White House](/tag/white-house/) ## White House Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # President Trump: White House Hanukkah Party Was 'All About Jerusalem' by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 8, 2017 1:14 PM CUT  President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White HouseSAUL LOEB - AFP/Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 8, 2017 1:14 PM CUT President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/tag/donald-trump/ "undefined") told attendees at Thursday night’s Hanukkah celebration at the White House that the party was “all about Jerusalem,” referring to his decision the day before to [recognize the holy city as the capital of Israel](http://time.com/5053704/trump-jerusalem-move-palestinians-israelis/ "undefined"). “Well, I know for a fact that there are a lot of happy people in this room,” Trump said in his remarks at the event, according to a pool transcript. Then, simply: “Jerusalem.” Guests at the party included the children of his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Arabella, Theodore, and Joseph, who have been raised as Jewish; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the prominent Orthodox rabbi Meir Soloveichik.  Ivanka Trump holds her son Theodore alongside Jared Kushner attends a Hanukkah reception SAUL LOEB - AFP/Getty Images Trump, flanked by First Lady Melania, invoked his Jerusalem decision — which has, as it was expected to, proven controversial — repeatedly throughout the evening. “That wasn’t bad,” Trump said after stumbling over the pronunciation of Soloveichik’s name in his remarks. “You think it’s an easy one? It’s not. But he’s so happy with yesterday that he doesn’t care if I get it exact.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5055770/donald-trump-hanukkah-party-jerusalem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5055770/donald-trump-hanukkah-party-jerusalem/"},"headline":"President Trump: White House Hanukkah Party Was 'All About Jerusalem'","datePublished":"2017-12-08T13:14:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:17.492Z","description":"\"Well, I know for a fact that there are a lot of happy people in this room\"","url":"https://time.com/5055770/donald-trump-hanukkah-party-jerusalem/","keywords":["White House","hanukkah","Jerusalem","Donald Trump","Ivanka Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt87c6a724bdcb92d6/6988f453929fadc4bdbeec7a/donald-trump-melania-hanukkah.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt87c6a724bdcb92d6/6988f453929fadc4bdbeec7a/donald-trump-melania-hanukkah.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Hanukkah","caption":"President Trump Hanukkah","creditText":"SAUL LOEB - AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5055770/donald-trump-hanukkah-party-jerusalem/","name":"President Trump: White House Hanukkah Party Was 'All About Jerusalem'"}}]}] ```