--- title: Donald Trump: White House Hanukkah Party All About Jerusalem description: President Donald Trump told attendees at Thursday night's Hanukkah celebration at the White House that the party was "all about Jerusalem." canonical: https://time.com/5055770/donald-trump-hanukkah-party-jerusalem/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-08T13:14:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:17.492Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump: White House Hanukkah Party Was 'All About Jerusalem' og:description: "Well, I know for a fact that there are a lot of happy people in this room" og:url: https://time.com/5055770/donald-trump-hanukkah-party-jerusalem/ og:site_name: TIME og: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 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Hanukkah og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump: White House Hanukkah Party Was 'All About Jerusalem' twitter:description: "Well, I know for a fact that there are a lot of happy people in this room" twitter: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 ---  # President Trump: White House Hanukkah Party Was 'All About Jerusalem' by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Dec 8, 2017 1:14 PM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Dec 8, 2017 1:14 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/tag/donald-trump/) 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/). “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.” Donald Trump: White House Hanukkah Party All About Jerusalem ```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'"}}]}] ```