Sheldon Adelson Arrives at GOP Convention — Still No Sign of His Fat Checkbook

By Nathan Guttman July 20, 2016

Sheldon Adelson, perhaps the single most important Jewish donor to the Republican Party, showed up in Cleveland Tuesday for the party’s national convention.

The megadonor arrived to take part in a foreign policy discussion hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Adelson is expected to contribute up to $100 million to the Donald Trump campaign. But so far he has yet to actually fork over the cash, raising questions about whether and to what extent he plans to back the Donald.

The casino mogul hasn’t said anything about Trump since the Donald tweeted a controversial image of Hillary Clinton next to a star of David and a pile of cash that many Jews regard as anti-Semitic.

Adelson ignored questions about the tweet and about his planned donations as he arrived at the event, Politico reported.

My (incredibly unproductive) effort to interview Sheldon Adelson about Trump’s Star of David tweet. pic.twitter.com/S7CT3u3Pgq

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) July 19, 2016

The event also featured speeches by Adelson ally Newt Gingrich and Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.

Gingrich said he doesn’t believe Adelson is reconsidering his vow to support Trump.

“I doubt it,” he told Politico.

So far, Adelson’s call to Jewish donors to bankroll Trump has so far gone largely unanswered.

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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