Posted on: August 17, 2024, 10:16h.
Last updated on: August 17, 2024, 10:18h.
Dr. Miriam Adelson, the largest shareholder of Las Vegas Sands with a 46% stake in the Macau casino empire, has pledged to spend “whatever it takes” to reelect her friend Donald Trump.
Adelson and her late husband, Sands founder Sheldon Adelson, have been Trump’s biggest supporters since the former casino tycoon announced his 2016 presidential run. The Adelson family poured more than $200 million into Trump’s 2016 run and unsuccessful 2020 reelection bid.
Adelson pledged this week to open up her deep pockets, estimated by Forbes to be north of $28 billion, to bankroll Trump for a third consecutive presidential election cycle. At a campaign event at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Adelson reportedly hinted that she has a blank check policy for the former president and will give his campaign whatever it needs to get him back in the White House.
Political odds currently have Trump as a slight underdog. Vice President Kamala Harris’ odds on political wagering exchange Polymarket give her an implied chance of 51% to Trump at 47%.
Overseas bookmakers have Harris at -125, or implied odds of 55.6%. Trump is even money (+100 — 50%).
Las Vegas Sands no longer has domestic casino holdings after selling The Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip in early 2022 for $6.25 billion. The company has several casino resorts in China’s Macau and is lobbying heavily in Texas for the Lone Star State to welcome casino resorts.
Adelson and her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, Sands’ president and chief operating officer, acquired a controlling stake in the NBA Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban last year. Adelson’s fortune tumbled over the last 12 months, as Sands’ stock price crashed almost 25%.
Adelson Super PAC
Adelson will once again primarily fund Trump through her super political action committee (PAC) Preserve America. She gave the PAC $5 million in May to get its Trump campaign up and running, but the committee’s treasure chest will see considerably more money from the Sands owner in the coming weeks.
According to Andy Abboud, the Adelsons’ longtime political aide, family advisor, and spokesperson, Preserve America will spend upwards of $100 million to make sure Harris doesn’t become the 47th president.
We’re going to do whatever it takes for him to win,” Abboud confirmed in an interview with CNBC on Friday. “In her mind, and in the minds of those who run [Preserve America], we are going to do whatever it takes for him to win.”
In addition to her Preserve American, Adelson in May wrote a check for $844,600 to the Trump 47 Committee. She’s also given 38 committees and PACs $10,000 each that are working to put GOP governors and congresspeople into office this November.
Israel in Focus
Adelson says Jewish voters should vote for Trump, a strong ally of the Israeli state who relocated the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem while president. The embassy’s relocation was of utmost importance to the Adelsons, who attended the embassy’s opening on May 14, 2018, sitting in the front row.
President Trump deserves the full support of the entire Jewish people,” Adelson, who received the Medal of Freedom from Trump in 2018 for her philanthropic work in medical research, Holocaust memorialization, and strengthening the American Jewish community. “Anyone who cares about Israel’s security and prosperity, this must be our pledge to him — this must be our promise to him — that the White House will be his again come January.”
Harris reportedly strongly considered Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to be her running mate but was rumored to have been concerned that his Jewish heritage could turn off the Democrats’ Palestinian support.
