THE JERUSALEM MOVE IS CONCIERGE GOVERNMENT

President Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel rewards his conservative Christian backers and lets the president tell himself that he's a macho man who doesn't fear "boldness" -- but it's also a policy decision that was bought and paid for by Sheldon Adelson, as Mark Landler of The New York Times reminds us:

Ten days before Donald J. Trump took office, Sheldon G. Adelson went to Trump Tower for a private meeting. Afterward, Mr. Adelson, the casino billionaire and Republican donor, called an old friend, Morton A. Klein, to report that Mr. Trump told him that moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a major priority.

“He was very excited, as was I,” said Mr. Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, a hard-line pro-Israel group. “This is something that’s in his heart and soul.” ...

Under a 1995 law, the president is required to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem unless, citing national security concerns, he signs a waiver, which has to be renewed every six months. The first time he faced that decision, in June, Mr. Trump grudgingly signed it....

Mr. Adelson and other pro-Israel backers were deeply frustrated. He pressed Mr. Trump on the issue at a private dinner in October at the White House that included his wife, Miriam, and [Jared] Kushner. Mr. Adelson also vented to Stephen K. Bannon, then the president’s chief strategist, who argued internally for moving the embassy in June....

Early in Mr. Trump’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, he privately courted the Adelsons....

In March 2016, Mr. Trump sought to burnish his credentials as a friend of Israel, telling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, “We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.”

The Adelsons were persuaded and donated $20 million to a political action committee that supported Mr. Trump’s campaign, and another $1.5 million to the committee that organized the Republican convention.

We know that the rich get what they want from the government. We know that no one likes the Republican tax bills except for rich donors, and we know that it's wealthy executives who want the president to shrink national monuments and make more land available for mining and drilling. The Jerusalem move is also a government decision custom-tailored for a rich donor.

Let's call it "concierge government" -- a rewards program for the government's best and most elite customers. I expect politicians to provide concierge service to big donors on matters that affect their bank accounts, but Trump gave a rich individual undue influence over a major foreign policy decision. That's a little less common, isn't it?