Miriam Adelson donates $100M to Trump campaign

(JTA) — Miriam Adelson has delivered on a pledge she reportedly made at the start of the general election season, donating $100 million to a campaign committee supporting the candidacy of Donald Trump, according to disclosures filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

The money was distributed to Adelson’s super PAC, Preserve America, which she had seeded earlier this year with $5 million, in a series of installments: $25 million a month in July, August and September and an additional $20 million at the end of September.

A major funder of pro-Israel politics and a prolific donor to Jewish causes, Adelson, 79, is carrying on a legacy she built with her late husband, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The Adelson family has long been one of the largest sources of campaign money for Republican candidates and has backed Trump during each of the last three general elections. Now, the widow is wielding an estimated net worth of $35 billion on her own. Though seen as more deliberate in her decision-making, she has not meaningfully departed from her late husband’s politics.

Her contribution was the largest in an array of new big money disclosures on Tuesday, eclipsing the $75 million contributed by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and head of Tesla and SpaceX, to his own pro-Trump super PAC.

If Trump wins, Adelson could once again be instrumental in shaping American policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Miriam Adelson and her husband were influential in Trump’s monumental direction to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the country’s contested capital city of Jerusalem in 2017.

Her praise for the former president includes suggesting in 2019 that a “Book of Trump” be added to the Bible. The following year, he awarded Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Adelson’s ties to Israel run deep. She was born in Tel Aviv during the British Mandate and speaks fluent Hebrew. She also served as an officer in the Israeli military. Though her business empire is based in the United States, she reportedly spends much of her time nowadays in Israel, where is known as the owner of the country’s largest newspaper, Israel Hayom.

Her writing in the newspaper since the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, makes clear that she’s been swept up in the political and social fervor gripping the country as it mourns the dead and seeks retribution. She said those who don’t support Israel in its campaign against Hamas are “dead to us.”

Adelson’s spokesperson earlier this year denied a report that she conditioned support for Trump on his public endorsement of Israeli annexation of the West Bank. But a top confidant, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, told the New York Times she’s against the establishment of a Palestinian state.

That position, along with many others, puts her at odds with liberal-leaning J Street, a lobbying group set up as a counterweight to the more hawkish AIPAC. J Street on Wednesday announced a fundraising milestone of $6 million for the campaign of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the largest contribution total from any Jewish organization.