Donald Trump is set to return ancient coins and oil lamps to Israel’s government after keeping them at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida since December 2021. Saul Fox, a wealthy GOP donor, gave the items to the former president at a 2021 Hanukkah party at the Palm Beach property, where they were then displayed in a case with a plaque bearing the logo of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Last week, a report in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said senior Israeli figures have been “unsuccessfully” attempting to secure their return. Fox later told The Wall Street Journal he’d originally hoped to present them to Trump at the White House in 2019 and had received permission from the head of the antiquities authority to do so, but the gesture was delayed after the State Department insisted on inspecting the items. “As the items were displayed as originally intended, the office will be expediting their return to the organization’s representative,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told The New York Times.
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