Posted on: September 10, 2024, 01:28h.
Last updated on: September 10, 2024, 01:28h.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), heavily supported by Las Vegas Sands billionaire Dr. Miriam Adelson, announced on Monday that it will spend $10 million in the key 2024 battleground states of Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona to put former President Donald Trump back in the White House.
Founded in 1985 to bridge relationships between the Jewish community and Republican lawmakers, the RJC became a major political player more than a decade ago when Sheldon Adelson began pouring millions of dollars into the nonprofit’s political action committees. Adelson, who built The Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and is credited for transforming China’s Macau into the world’s richest gambling hub, died in January 2021.
While the GOP was concerned his widow might lessen or stop her husband’s late political spending, the 78-year-old worth around $30 billion has so far continued to use her family inheritance to carry on her husband’s legacy in strengthening the Israeli State. The Israel-Hamas war has only further fueled Adelson, who Trump bestowed the Medal of Freedom on in 2018, the highest civilian award in the United States, to spend “whatever it takes” to get Trump back in the Oval Office.
During the RJC Annual Leadership Summit at The Venetian in Las Vegas last week, Adelson said Trump is the Jewish community’s “best friend.”
RJC Unprecedented Spending
With Adelson’s support, the RJC plans to spend a record $15 million this presidential election cycle to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris, with $10 million going to battlegrounds. The RJC believes Trump is an ally to the Jewish community while Harris has sympathized with anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The RJC’s first 2024 political ad released yesterday claims Harris aligns with members of the so-called “squad” in Washington, D.C. — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) — in being anti-Israel and pro-Palestine.
“Kamala Harris embraces and defends the squad even after Ilhan Omar made disgusting anti-Semitic comments,” a narrator claims. “Harris joined the squad in sympathizing with anti-Semitic, anti-Israel protestors.”
The 30-second spot will begin airing in select markets during tonight’s presidential debate between Harris and Trump. While the latest polling suggests Harris has a slight lead, political betting markets have Trump as the front-runner.
Understanding the gravity of this moment … this is, by far, the largest and most comprehensive effort to turn out the Jewish vote for President Donald J. Trump,” the RJC said.
Trump, at the urging of the Adelsons, relocated the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The late Adelson for years said the embassy should be located there to recognize Jerusalem as the true capital of Israel.
“I’m a one-issue person. That issue is Israel,” Adelson, whose parents were Jewish immigrants, said in 2017. Adelson added that Palestine exists solely “to destroy Israel.”
Odd Relationship
While Adelson and the RJC work to reelect Trump, her newest business partner is doing just the opposite.
Adelson acquired a controlling stake in the NBA Dallas Mavericks last year from billionaire Mark Cuban. The “Shark Tank” star retained a 27% ownership position in the team and remains in charge of the franchise’s operations.
Cuban has been an outspoken critic of Trump and has urged his millions of social media followers, specifically on X, to back Harris. Cuban told CNBC last week that he speaks to the Harris campaign three to four times a week.
The tech tycoon says he’s offered to serve in the Harris administration, with it being his wish to head up the Securities and Exchange Commission.
