Meet Miriam Adelson, the billionaire GOP donor who gave $100 million to support Donald Trump’s campaign

• Miriam Adelson, 79, is the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

• The Adelsons have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to GOP super PACs over the years.

• Miriam Adelson is one of Donald Trump’s top donors in 2024.

Miriam Adelson, the widow of the CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation Sheldon AdelsonShe is one of the richest women in the US with an estimated net worth of $35.6 billion Forbes.

The Adelsons have donated hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to GOP super PACs, as well as Jewish and Israeli organizations. Following the death of Sheldon Adelson in 2021, Miriam Adelson has continued to use her fortune to re-elect Donald Trump as one of his richest donors.

Here we take a closer look at Miriam Adelson’s background, wealth and political preferences.

The Adelson Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

Miriam Adelson, 79, was born and raised in Israel and became a doctor specializing in drug addiction.

After her mandatory military service in the Israeli army, during which she served as a medical officer, Miriam Adelson studied microbiology and genetics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to Jewish virtual library. She subsequently received her medical degree from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences in Tel Aviv and served as a chief internist in an emergency room at Rokach Hospital in Tel Aviv.

In a 2023 video featuring International March of the Livinga Holocaust memorial organization, Miriam Adelson spoke about being the daughter of Holocaust survivors and, as a doctor in Israel, treating other survivors with numbers on their arms.

She married Sheldon Adelson, who was chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, in 1991.

Miriam Adelson met Sheldon Adelson, CEO and chairman of the Las Vegas casino company, while visiting Rockefeller University in New York for an exchange program focused on treating drug addiction.

Sheldon Adelson, a college dropout and serial entrepreneur, founded several companies early in his career before making his fortune through stock markets. COMDEX, the Las Vegas technology trade show he launched in the 1970s, became a huge success with an attendance of approximately 225,000 people. Las Vegas Review Journal reported. SoftBank bought COMDEX and other smaller shows in 1995 for $862 million, and Adelson used the payout to build his hotel and casino empire.

Both Sheldon Adelson and Miriam Adelson had been married before, and both divorced in the 1980s.

They married at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Hadassah magazine reported. They share two sons.

The Adelsons contributed hundreds of billions of dollars to Republican campaigns and super PACs.

Politics reported that Miriam Adelson was the top female donor in the 2012 election — when incumbent President Barack Obama faced Republican candidate Mitt Romney — donating about $46 million to Republican super PACs, while Sheldon Adelson donated about $50 million.

The New York Times reported in 2021 that the Adelsons’ contributions to GOP campaigns and organizations had totaled about half a billion dollars since 2010.

They donated large sums to Jewish and Israeli organizations through the Adelson Foundation.

The Adelson Foundation, founded in 2007, has a mission to “strengthen the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” according to its website.

The foundation has donated $500 million to the foundation Israel Birthright Foundationwhich offers free trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. The Adelsons also donated $25 million to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, in 2011 and $10 million to Friends of the IDF in 2018.

The Adelsons have established two substance abuse treatment and research centers, one in Tel Aviv and one in Las Vegas.

Miriam Adelson also bought a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban in 2023.

Cuban sold his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks for approximately $3.5 billion, but remains a minority owner.

She was a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump.

In 2016, the Adelsons donated more than $38 million to Republican super PACs and congressional campaigns, including a $10 million contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC Future45, according to OpenSecrets.

When Trump was elected, Sheldon Adelson donated $5 million to help finance the inauguration festivities, and Miriam Adelson was vice chairman of the event’s finance department.

As president, Trump implemented items on the Adelsons’ Israeli agenda. He announced that the US would formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. He also withdrew from the 2015 elections. nuclear deal with Iran.

In a 2019 article for Israel Hayoman Israeli daily newspaper she owns, Miriam Adelson praised Trump’s support for Israel and floated the idea of ​​adding a “Book of Trump” to the Bible.

The Adelsons were Trump’s biggest donors during World War II Elections 2020 cycle, contributing $120 million to Trump’s campaign and Republican groups.

Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.

Trump sparked controversy for comparing the Congressional Medal of Honor to the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but in the civilian version – it’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers, they’re actually in really bad shape because they’re exposed to so much bullets have hit or they are dead,” Trump said of Miriam Adelson’s award.

Trump later clarified that when he said the nation’s highest civilian honor was “better,” he meant it is less painful to be awarded since recipients “generally don’t have to suffer.”

After her husband’s death in 2021, she remains one of Trump’s biggest donors.

Sheldon Adelson died in 2021 at the age of 87 due to complications related to the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Miriam Adelson has continued to donate to philanthropic and political causes. Ahead of the 2024 election, she donated $100 million to a pro-Trump super PAC and made several public appearances with the former president.

In September, Miriam Adelson called Trump “a true friend of the Jewish people” as she introduced him at a Las Vegas event focused on anti-Semitism.

In his speech at the event, Trump said that “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss” if he lost the 2024 election and spoke about his relationship with Sheldon Adelson.

“Her husband would drive me crazy,” Trump told Miriam Adelson. “‘You have to do this. You have to do that.’ You don’t know what I had to put up with.”

Read the original article Business insider