Trump’s nominee for Pentagon chief suggested new temple could be built on Temple Mount

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth suggested that a temple could be re-established on the Temple Mount in a resurfaced speech he gave in 2018 at the Arutz Sheva conference in Jerusalem.

“There’s no reason why the miracle of the re-establishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible,” Hegseth said.

“I don’t know how it would happen. You don’t know how it would happen, but I know that it could happen,” he added.

Hegseth also appeared to endorse annexing Israeli settlements, an effort backers of the effort often describe as “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical names for the West Bank.