The pro-Israel billionaire widow whispering in Trump’s ear

In a move that defied decades of international consensus and implicitly recognized its status as the capital, Donald Trump relocated the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2018. At the inauguration ceremony, grinning from ear to ear and applauding enthusiastically, were Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire power couple behind the Las Vegas Sands Corporation casino conglomerate. The Adelsons subsequently purchased the former ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv for over $80 million to ensure that the next government would not reverse the decision. Now, following Sheldon’s death in 2021, Miriam continues to lead the charge: as Trump’s top donor as she aspires to be, once again, one of the most influential civilians in the next administration.

Miriam Adelson, born Miriam Farbstein in Tel Aviv in 1945, is the daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants. Her father, a socialist who owned several movie theaters, emigrated in 1931 to join a kibbutz, one of the agricultural colonies established in what would later become the state of Israel. Her mother narrowly escaped the Holocaust, where her entire family perished. Born three years before the creation of Israel, Adelson is part of what is known in the country as “the children of the state”— a generation responsible for nation-building.

After earning a degree in Microbiology and Genetics, Adelson, like every young person in Israel, completed two years of mandatory military service. She then pursued a medical degree and eventually became the chief internist in the emergency room at Rokach Hospital in Tel Aviv. It was there that she met her first husband, also a doctor, with whom she had two children. During this time, she developed a keen interest in addiction treatment, which would become her life’s work.

In 1986, after her divorce, Miriam Adelson relocated to New York for a residency at Rockefeller University, where she worked alongside Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek, a pioneer in methadone treatment. What was initially intended to be a brief stay transformed into a permanent move when a friend arranged a blind date with Sheldon Adelson, a rising Jewish businessman who had recently divorced and made a small fortune hosting an annual computer convention in Las Vegas, where he had acquired a casino.

“What drew me was his Herzl-like vision and drive,” she would later write, referencing Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement. Together, they would forge a powerful partnership in business, politics, and philanthropy. During their honeymoon in Venice, she persuaded him to transform his casino into a mega-resort. Over the years, they expanded their empire to become the largest casino conglomerate in the world, with ventures spanning from Las Vegas to Singapore, including Macau, and even a proposed project in Madrid called Eurovegas.

Political Influence

The couple’s flirtation with power began almost immediately after their wedding. The ceremony held in Israel caused a stir because they used a space reserved for public events, prompting a young Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel’s foreign minister, to issue an apology. Years later, they would leverage their influence through their newspaper, Israel Hayom, to pressure then prime minister Ehud Olmert out of office and pave the way for the rise of Netanyahu, a maneuver Olmert recounts in his memoirs.

The Adelsons understood early on that money is the most effective form of influence. In 2005, they donated $500,000 to George W. Bush’s inauguration, granting Miriam enough access to present his chief of staff with a book on jihad. “It’s really amazing that we have this influence,” she remarked, as reported in New York Magazine. As their donations increased, so did their clout: in Trump’s first campaign, they contributed $25 million; in 2020, that figure rose to $90 million. Now, as a single donor, Miriam is the largest supporter of the Republican candidate, with a $100 million donation.

Although there were fears that she would withdraw from public life following her husband’s death, Adelson remains active. Her close circle unanimously agrees on one point: she has never been merely “the wife of.” “She was the power behind the throne. Sheldon never did anything without Miriam. She was always at his side. She drove a lot of his initiatives,” said Fred Zeidman, a family friend and prominent Republican donor, in an interview with Politico.

As a major shareholder in the casino empire, she has continued her entrepreneurial endeavors: in November 2023, she purchased the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, aiming to influence the legalization of gambling in Texas. However, her focus remains firmly on politics and, particularly, her home country. The Hamas attack in October 2023 was, for Adelson, “another kind of Holocaust.” Her acquaintances note that she aspires for Israel to eventually annex the West Bank, outright rejecting the two-state solution.

When Trump moved Israel’s embassy to Jerusalem, the Republican Jewish Coalition — funded by the Adelsons — paid for a full-page ad in The New York Times depicting Trump wearing a kippah and placing a hand on the Western Wall, accompanied by the text, “President Trump. He promised. He delivered.” With less than two weeks until the election, the world is left wondering what Miriam Adelson hopes to gain in return for her substantial financial contributions. The eighth-richest woman in the world will not be content with merely leaving a book in the White House.

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