Trump vies for Adelson campaign cash — but there’s one major catch

04 June 2024

A billionaire heiress who frequently ranks among the top donors to GOP candidates and causes has remained relatively quiet in the 2024 race, but she recently suggested former President Donald Trump could win her over with an even more hawkish pro-Israel foreign policy agenda.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Miriam Adelson — the widow of billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson — is likely to top the list of GOP donors in 2024, based on her past donations in previous campaign cycles. With a net worth in excess of $30 billion, Adelson is continuing her husband's tradition of being a kingmaker in Republican politics, and she recently signaled to Trump that the campaign cash spigot could be unleashed if he comes out in favor of allowing Israel to annex the Palestinian-controlled West Bank territory, and if his administration recognizes it as Israeli territory.

Haaretz heavily cited a New York Magazine profile of Adelson for its late May issue by Elizabeth Weil. Author Nettanel Slyomovics wrote that Adelson likely spoke off the record with Weil in order for the New York journalist to get an inside view on the far-right billionaire's 2024 plans. Weil noted in her story that the Adelsons praised Trump for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (a slight to Palestinians, who consider Jerusalem their capital as well) and for official U.S. recognition of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights territory — which the United Nations has condemned as illegal under international law.

Annexing the West Bank (which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority as opposed to Hamas-controlled Gaza) is Adelson's ultimate goal, according to Slyomovics' article. He reported that during a meeting with Adelson, Trump made a "tactical error" of saying Israel has "got to get to peace," and "finish up" its war with Hamas. Adelson hoped to get Trump on board with the far more radical plan of backing an Israeli takeover of the West Bank.

"Adelson, a resident of Herzliya and a megadonor for settlement development in the West Bank, did not wish to hear Trump yearning for peace," Slyomovics wrote. "Under these conditions, there's no room for the Palestinian Authority, and nobody to sign a peace accord with."

The blowback from the international community would be severe in the event of a West Bank takeover. According to Amnesty International, if Israel were to officially annex Palestinian-controlled territory and resettle it with tacit U.S. support, it would amount to a violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

"The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies,” Article 49 reads, while also emphasizing that any occupying power is forbidden from conducting “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory."

While radical, Adelson's proposal may still become a plank of Trump's platform given the benefit of her largesse. On May 30, Adelson announced that her Preserve America super PAC would spend $100 million to elect Trump to a second term. This is a staggering sum: To date, Adelson has given $284 million to political causes, and 2024 would mark her largest financial commitment in a single election year.

Trump hasn't yet publicly announced support for Israeli annexation of the West Bank. But in a May meeting with Jewish donors in New York, the former president promised to set back the pro-Palestine movement by "25 or 30 years." He also pledged to deport any foreign-born college students for any pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.

"Any student that protests, I throw them out of the country," Trump said. "You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they're going to behave."

Click here to read Haaretz's full report, and click here to read Weil's profile in New York (subscription required).

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