Miriam Adelson, one of the wealthiest women in Republican circles, intends to donate to Donald Trump, according to people briefed on the matter, giving the former president a huge financial boost heading into the November election.
Adelson plans to donate millions to Preserve America, a super political action committee supporting Trump. Federal records show Adelson and her late husband, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, gave $90 million in 2020. She plans to give at a similar level this cycle, according to a person familiar with her thinking. Preserve America is anticipating raising even more than the $105 million it had last election, according to another person familiar with the group’s fundraising.
The super PAC will be lead by Dave Carney, a longtime GOP operative from New Hampshire with close ties to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Politico first reported Adelson’s intention to donate to Trump.
The Trump campaign has been on the hunt for donations from deep-pocketed donors since the former president clinched the Republican nomination in March. With a fortune of $33.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adelson is in a financial position to contribute sums that could help Trump close the massive fundraising gap he has with his opponent President Joe Biden.
Trump has spent months seeking to win Adelson’s financial support. He dined with her in Las Vegas in February on the same night he declared victory in the Nevada caucus. Last year, the two also met at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and in Las Vegas during the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference. One of Trump’s top aides, Chris LaCivita, helped to run the pro-Trump super PAC in 2020, called Preserve America, that received the bulk of its funding from Adelson and her late husband.
Trump has scored other major fundraising victories in recent weeks, including a $40 million swing through Texas and winning the support of Blackstone Inc.’s Steve Schwarzman, one of the most prolific Republican donors, who had previously said he was looking for an alternative to Trump.
Biden has roughly twice as much cash on hand as Trump, though the former president for the first time in April raised more money than his opponent.
Since 2010, the Adelsons have donated $550 million to Republican candidates and causes at the federal level, according to OpenSecrets. They gave more than twice as much as any of the party’s other mega-donors during that period, including the $239 million donated by Citadel’s Ken Griffin and the $230 million contributed by Uline Inc. co-founders Richard Uihlein and Elizabeth Uihlein.
The Adelsons are Trump’s biggest financial backers, contributing $122 million to his election efforts since 2016, but she didn’t support him or any other candidate in the 2024 GOP primary, despite efforts from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to woo her.
