Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Sheldon Adelson Gave Record $5M For Trump’s Inauguration

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson donated $5 million for President Trump’s inauguration committee, new disclosures from the Federal Election Commission revealed Tuesday.

Adelson’s gift was the largest contribution ever given to support an inauguration, but it was far from the only such donation: more than 20 people and corporations signed million-dollar checks, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and billionaire investors Steven A. Cohen and Paul Singer.

Singer was once a notable critic of Trump. Bloomberg News reported that “For many donors, the inaugural committee represented the last or only chance to get on the Trump bandwagon before he took the oath of office.”

Donors received special access to inaugural balls and the swearing-in ceremony.

Altogether, Trump’s committee, which unlike President Obama placed no limits on donation sizes, raised $107 million. That figure is “an awful lot of money — it’s roughly what we spent on two,” Steve Kerrigan, CEO for Obama’s 2013 inaugural committee, told the Associated Press.

The Trump team has pledged to donate its leftover funds to charities.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter at @aidenpink.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.