Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to attend the inauguration of the Pilgrims’ Road at the City of David in Jerusalem during his upcoming visit to Israel, two sources familiar with Rubio’s travel confirmed to Jewish Insider this week.

Rubio will be making his second trip to Israel as secretary of state, after first visiting in February. The September 15 event, according to an invitation viewed by JI and translated into English, “will be attended by senior diplomats and high-ranking officials from the government[s] of Israel and the United States, along with our close friends.”

Last week, Rubio met in Washington with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who was making his first trip to the nation’s capital since becoming Israel’s most senior diplomat last year.

Right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson appeared to remain seated as President Donald Trump said that “the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families” during his inauguration speech on Monday, a comment that drew a wide and bipartisan standing ovation from a majority of attendees at the Capitol Rotunda ceremony. 

Carlson, who received one of the most sought-after seats in Washington to attend the inauguration in the rotunda — which has a limited capacity of about 600 people — drew unusually fierce criticism from several Republican lawmakers over his decision last September to host Darryl Cooper, a Holocaust distortionist who called Winston Churchill the “chief villain” of World War II, on his show. 

Three months later, Carlson held another controversial interview with Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University professor who, in a lengthy discussion with Carlson, espoused a litany of conspiracy theories about Israel and the broader Middle East. 

Carlson and the newly inaugurated Vice President J.D. Vance have a close professional relationship. The former Fox News host lobbied Trump aggressively to choose Vance as his running mate, and the former senator has appeared on his online streaming program.