Sheldon Adelson Backs Trump, While Clinton Goes Fishing for Bush Donors

Sheldon Adelson Speaks At Global Gaming Expo In Las Vegas
Sheldon Adelson. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Donald Trump has landed his first megadonor. To this point, the presumptive nominee has had trouble winning over his fellow subscribers to Better Yachts and Private Islands magazine. The Koch brothers have decided they’ve got better elections to buy. Most of the Bush-family money lenders are still recovering from what the Donald did to their poor Jeb. But Sheldon G. Adelson — who spent $150 million helping Mitt Romney lose in 2012 — told the New York Times Thursday night that he wants to make America great again.

Yes, I’m a Republican, he’s a Republican,” the casino magnate said when asked if he intended to support Trump this fall. “He’s our nominee. Whoever the nominee would turn out to be, any one of the 17 — he was one of the 17. He won fair and square.”

Trump began courting Adelson last October, when he accused the Jewish billionaire of trying to mold Marco Rubio into “his perfect little puppet.”

Two months later, Trump addressed the Adelson-bankrolled Republican Jewish Coalition, and informed the gathered Jewry that he admired their negotiating skills but wished they would stop trying to control America’s politicians.

The RJC says it will focus on retaining the Senate this fall.

But the Times reports that Trump and Adelson met in person over the winter, and the magnate decided that the mogul was “charming” and “good for Israel.” (Adelson’s main political concerns are securing America’s unflinching support for right-wing Zionism and defeating the scourge of online gambling, which he opposes for 100 percent ethical reasons and not because he wants to eliminate a form of competition to his casinos.)

On Thursday, Trump received the endorsement of another wealthy Republican he’d previously disparaged on Twitter. Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts, whose family funded a super-pac devoted to defeating Trump in the primary, signaled that he will back the Donald at a rally in Omaha on Friday.

Maybe the Ricketts really do have something to hide.

Meanwhile, Politico reports that Team Clinton is calling up all of the Bush family’s favorite Wall Street moneymen and saying how they’d “love to chat about what a disaster Trump is.” This wooing operation isn’t official and may consist largely of Wall Street Democrats nudging their conservative friends at cocktail parties.

According to Politico, even those Republican donors who prefer Clinton to Trump aren’t ready to give the Democrat their hard-earned capital gains. After all, she’s probably going to win in a landslide without their help.

I’m not worried about it at all,” one CEO told the news site. “[Trump] is going to lose and we will all wake up after election day and things will be just like they’ve been the last eight years with a Democrat in the White House and Republicans controlling Congress.”

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a Republican Congress stamping on the Democrats’ agenda — forever.

Adelson Wants to Make America Great Again