I was on-site Thursday for former President Donald Trump’s D.C. event with Las Vegas-based GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson to discuss antisemitism. Neither talked about Nevada (bummer!), but there were certainly insights to be gleaned about their relationship — one of the most critical in fundraising and Israel policy circles.
Let’s get into it.
The News of the Week: Donald and Miriam
Adelson, the wife of the late gaming magnate Sheldon Adelson and an ardent supporter of her native Israel, has been among the chief financiers of Trump’s political ambitions.
Since 2016, the Adelsons have given hundreds of millions of dollars to super PACs supporting Trump. They were rewarded well by him in the White House — Trump accomplished a number of the Israel lobby’s goals, including moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as being part of Israel and withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. In 2018, Trump awarded Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This presidential election cycle, Miriam’s first since Sheldon’s death in 2021, she initially stayed neutral in the Republican primary before reportedly pledging to spend $100 million, as she did in 2020, on his re-election campaign. While the New York Times reported that Trump aides sent angry text messages to Adelson during the summer about the personnel of her super PAC, she had nothing but praise for him at Thursday’s event.
“We Jews are a purposeful people, and President Trump is [a] purposeful man,” Adelson said while introducing the former president. “He is a true friend of the Jewish people.”
Trump made several policy pledges in his speech, including taking away accreditation for universities that tolerate antisemitism and prosecuting them for civil rights violations, bringing back his 2017 travel ban and deporting people who want to eliminate Israel.
Jewish Americans are one of the most persistently Democratic voting blocs. A 2021 Pew Research study found that 71 percent identify as Democrats; Trump, during his speech, repeatedly groused at how poor his margins were with Jewish voters.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), where Sheldon served on the board of directors, believes that between the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses and rising antisemitism, Republicans including Trump have a chance to reach record high levels of Jewish support. The organization is running a $15 million ad campaign in swing states to that effect.
In her speech, Adelson told attendees that Jews have a “sacred duty” to vote for Trump, “in gratitude for everything he has done and trust in everything he will yet do.” But she also made overtures to Jews with opposing viewpoints, beginning her speech by heralding the diversity within the Jewish community.
“Despite our differences and disagreements, we are a big meshugenah (crazy) family,” Adelson said. “Like siblings who go their separate ways, but reunite in times of joy or hardship, we are responsible for one another. When it matters, we look out for each other.”
Trump, to put it lightly, was not as inclusive.
Bemoaning that, after all of the Israel policy decisions he made, his share of the Jewish vote only increased marginally between 2016 and 2020, he warned Jewish voters that they would be at fault if he loses this cycle.
“In my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss,” he said, lamenting that a recent poll had him at only 40 percent support among Jews — which would be a generational high.
He also framed the stakes of the election as existential for Israel.
“If I do win, Israel will be safe and secure, and we will stop the toxic poison of antisemitism from spreading all over America and all over the world,” Trump said. “But if I don’t win, I believe Israel will be eradicated.”
The Nevada Angle
Trump spent time detailing his relationship with both Adelsons. Sheldon, he said, was always agitating for the next thing even as colleagues were celebrating a prior achievement.
“Her husband would drive me crazy,” Trump said, gesturing at Miriam. “‘You have to do this. You have to do that.’ You don’t know what I had to put up with.”
He referred to Miriam several times throughout the speech as “a great lady, a great woman, my friend” and addressed various comments directly to her.
The entire event reiterated just how critical the 78-year-old, whose net worth is estimated at over $30 billion, is in Republican politics, even after Sheldon’s death, and therefore how important her priorities vis-a-vis Israel are.
The Impact
For every policy promise Trump made about antisemitism, he made another comment disparaging Jewish Democrats — saying they needed their heads examined and referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as “Hamas all the way.”
It was pretty par for the course for the former president, and a good reminder that Jewish voters are not a monolith — as Trump himself noted, several Jewish organizations have taken part in protests against Israel and in support of Gazans devastated by the war.
In a state where Jews make up about 3 percent of the population — larger than the margin by which Biden won Nevada in 2020 — they’re as critical a voting bloc as any in the Silver State. As I’ve written about before in the context of the Senate race, the RJC firmly believes this is the cycle where Republicans make significant gains. We’ll see if Trump’s messaging helps or hurts.
Around the Capitol
🏈Titus v. Tonko — Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) talked sports betting and gaming legislation in Congress at a Semafor event, including analyzing the latest iteration of Rep. Paul Tonko’s (D-NY) Safe Betting Act, which would ban in-game sports betting advertising and betting on college sports.
Titus said that Tonko is coming at the issue from an addiction standpoint, while she thinks the gaming industry and state regulators have been successful in setting responsible rules and federal regulation is a slippery slope. (Alternate headline here: Las Vegas congresswoman against new restrictions on gaming; sky is blue)
☢️Bipartisanship not totally radioactive — Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Susie Lee (D-NV) partnered on legislation to improve health care for veterans exposed to radiation at the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR).
A 2000 law provided free health care for nuclear weapons workers whose illnesses were contracted due to their employment. Similarly, the 2022 PACT Act made having served in Vietnam or in the Middle East presumptive for certain health conditions, qualifying those veterans for free treatment from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Amodei and Lee’s bill would establish the presumption that veterans who served at the NTTR were exposed to radiation, qualifying them for free health care for radiation-borne illnesses.
💸Government shutdown countdown: 9 days — Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put a bill on the House floor that would extend government funding at its current level for six months and require proof of citizenship to vote when registering. As expected, it failed, with the opposition of nearly all Democrats — including the three Nevadans — and several Republican defectors. Amodei, an appropriator, supported the bill, but predicted that a three-month stopgap will emerge as the final product.
🏀Coming up Aces — It was a WNBA-heavy week for the Nevada delegation. Lee took to the House floor to congratulate Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson for breaking the league’s single-season points record, and then held a fundraiser Thursday night at the Washington Mystics vs. Indiana Fever game in D.C. Titus, meanwhile, said at the Semafor event that her only betting advice would be to bet on Wilson. (From an amateur better: Those points and rebounds overs are always a good proposition!)
What I’m Reading
Texas Border Business: Cornyn, Cortez Masto bill to stop illicit drug financing signed into law
Not every day a member gets a bill signed!
The Nevada Independent: Horsford intros his own bill ending taxes on tips, while also raising subminimum wage
Horsford wants to bring this tax policy onto Democratic turf.
KSNV: Nevada’s Horsford named to key House Dems leadership role
Horsford is now one of 10 deputy whips — and a clear leadership favorite.
Notable and Quotable
“We’ve been through this drill enough times to know that nobody’s come up with a silver bullet to put somebody in a chokehold ‘till they scream, ‘Uncle.’”
— Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), to Punchbowl News, on the funding dilemma, in classic Amodei fashion
Vote of the Week
H.R. 1579 — On Passage: Anti-BDS Labeling Act
I try to highlight bills where the Republican majority was successfully able to peel off Democrats to join their side — particularly when the Nevada Democrats are divided. This bill, part of Republicans’ “anti-woke” crusade on the floor this week, requires that items produced in Israeli-controlled areas within the West Bank or Gaza be labeled as “Made in Israel” rather than “Made in the West Bank” or “Made in Gaza.”
AMODEI: Yes
HORSFORD: No
LEE: Yes
TITUS: No
