![]() He and his first wife, Sandra, were divorced in 1988. He has a problem, I try to help him,” Reid said.Īdelson was married twice. “Sheldon Adelson and I still meet and have conversations. He had previously told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that he remained friends with Adelson despite their political differences. Reid had sharply criticized the Koch brothers as callous and greedy, while saying that he respected Adelson because he was “not in it to make money,” a widely challenged opinion. In a 2014 interview with MSNBC, the then-Senate majority leader differentiated between Adelson and fellow GOP billionaire donors Charles and David Koch. In Nevada, his influence was such that even the state’s most prominent Democrat, Sen. He cited taxes and differences over Israel as major reasons for leaving the Democratic party. In a 2012 interview with the Wall Street Journal, he called himself “basically a social liberal,” pro-choice on abortion and supportive of immigrant rights. ![]() In what was widely seen as a mark of the Adelsons’ influence with Trump, Miriam Adelson was given a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.Īdelson, who contributed more than $100 million to the 2018 off-year elections, held extraordinary power among Republicans even though he didn’t always agree with them. Late in 2015, Adelson secretly purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal – the paper’s own reporters revealed he was the new owner – and soon raised concerns he was imposing his own views. embassy to Jerusalem even though earlier administrations – Democratic and Republican – avoided doing do because it directly challenged the Palestinian view that the ancient city should be part of any peace agreement.Īdelson, in turn, aided Trump financially, including $5 million for his inauguration, and supported him through his media holdings. He cut funding for Palestinian refugees and withdrew from the Obama administration’s nuclear nonproliferation deal with Iran. He gave more than $20 million in the final weeks of the campaign after reports that he would contribute $100 million, and was more generous with congressional races.īut after Trump’s surprise victory, the new president spoke often with Adelson and embraced his hardline views on the Middle East. I agree!” Adelson eventually endorsed Trump, but remained hesitant through much of 2016. Marco Rubio of Florida, tweeting in 2015, “Sheldon Adelson is looking to give big dollars to Rubio because he feels he can mold him into his perfect little puppet. Trump even ridiculed his initial liking for Sen. He sponsored “Birthright” trips to Israel for young Jewish adults that were criticized by some participants as intolerant of opposing views.Īdelson came around slowly to Trump, who during the campaign had said he would be “neutral” in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. In the U.S., Adelson helped underwrite congressional trips to Israel, helped build a new headquarters for the lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and later was a top supporter of the Israeli-American Council, whose conferences have attracted top Republicans (Vice President Mike Pence) and Democrats (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi). He was closely aligned with the conservative Likud Party and funded a widely read free daily newspaper called “Israel Hayom,” or “Israel Today,” so supportive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that some Israelis nicknamed it “Bibi-ton.” He established a think tank in Jerusalem. He donated $25 million, a record sum for a private citizen, to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. When asked at a gambling conference what he hoped his legacy would be, Adelson said it wasn’t his glitzy casinos or hotels, it was his impact in Israel. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, were front and center at the ceremony in Jerusalem. ![]() The inflammatory move had been adamantly opposed by Palestinians and was long a priority for Adelson, who had even offered to help pay for it, and for the Republican Jewish Coalition, of which he was the primary benefactor. ![]()
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