Yahoo Finance Trump Mega Donor Miriam Adelson Opens Up Cash Spigot
Republican mega-donor Miriam Adelson had been hanging back on investing in the 2024 election.
Once part of a power couple with her husband Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, she has spent the months since the outbreak of war in Israel speaking out on behalf of the country where she grew up.
In December, she and her son-in-law bought a controlling interest in the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.
However, new Federal Election Commission filings show that Adelson opened up her wallet to Donald Trump and other Republicans in May, beginning a likely slew of campaign spending.
Through a contribution to the Trump 47 Joint Fundraising Committee (JFC), which accepts huge sums and parcels them out to other groups, Adelson contributed the maximum allowable amount, $413,000, to the Republican National Committee.
Adelson’s cash infusion to the JFC also furnished $6,600 directly to the Trump campaign, the most she can give for the primary and general elections combined.
Those donations bolstered Trump’s massive war chest. According to the most recent FEC reports, his campaign committee had almost $117 million cash on hand at the beginning of June, exceeding the Biden campaign, which had nearly $92 million.
The full fundraising picture won’t be available until July when the constellation of committees working on behalf of each candidate will open their books to the public.
Adelson’s name is absent from the report filed by Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, which the former president has used as a legal slush fund.
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In previous months, the group brought in millions, reporting a six-figure transfer from Trump 47 in April. In May, the PAC reported a minuscule $4,337.62 in receipts, with no JFC transfer listed.
A source familiar with Trumpworld fundraising suggested that the height of Trump’s legal troubles—his conviction in New York on 34 criminal charges related to hush-money payments—may now be behind him, causing the PAC to need less money. Trump’s other criminal cases are in limbo, subject to courtroom delay.
New filings show Save America spent big on legal consulting in May, the month that saw the most action in the blockbuster hush-money trial. The group dropped nearly $3.7 million—or 85 percent of its budget. That sum included more than $1.8 million to the firm of Todd Blanche, who helmed Trump’s defense in New York.
Trump 47 is not required to file a report until next month, meaning the public will have to wait to learn the exact total Adelson gave the JFC.
Filings that became public this week do reveal that Adelson gave $1 million to a super PAC backing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who was reportedly her pick for president in 2016 before she saw Trump gaining traction.
The group, Truth and Courage PAC, has come under fire for pushing the bounds of campaign finance law to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars from the senator’s podcast.
The National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee reported that Adelson gave the maximum allowable sums to their main committee accounts, their recount and legal proceedings accounts, and their headquarters accounts. That amounts to $289,100 for each committee.
All of Adelson’s recent donations came May 3, the day former close Trump aide Hope Hicks took the stand in the New York hush-money trial and the day after he paid a fine for violating his gag order.
Adelson rarely speaks to reporters and could not be reached for comment.
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Apart from $5,000 in March to the PAC for Las Vegas Sands, the resort and casino company Adelson now owns, the May donations are the first the mega-donor has made since 2022.
Despite her long-standing relationship with Trump, who awarded her a presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018, Adelson opted to sit out the Republican primary.
However, one source told Politico last month that Adelson plans to bankroll another pro-Trump super PAC, Preserve America, for more than the $90 million she and her husband gave in 2020.
A PAC with that name was registered last month. Like Trump 47, though, it is not required to file a fundraising report until July.
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