Republican Convention Begs Sheldon Adelson for $6M as Sponsors Shun Trump

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Republican Party convention is asking Sheldon Adelson to cover a $6 million shortfall triggered by sponsors walking out over the nominee, Donald Trump.
Politico reported Thursday that the appeal to the casino magnate came July 12, just six days before the July 18 launch of the convention in Cleveland. The convention has raised $58 million of its projected $64 million cost.
Adelson is a major pro-Israel giver and a Republican who has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to help elect Trump.
The letter from the convention’s host committee lists among donors who have withdrawn their pledges David Koch at $1 million, FedEx at $500,000, Visa at $100,000, Pepsi at $500,000 and Coca-Cola at $1 million.
The organizers bluntly admit that Trump and his controversies have led to the shortfall.
“Over the past couple months, negative publicity around our potential nominee resulted in a considerable number of pledges backing out from their commitments,” Politico quotes the letter as saying. “We would greatly appreciate if you would consider a $6,000,000 contribution to the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee to help us cross the finish line.”
Coca-Cola was among the companies targeted by a call to boycott the convention because of Trump’s broadsides against Mexicans, Muslims and women. The coalition of groups calling for the boycott, Color of Change, a Jewish social action group, Bend the Arc. Coca Cola would not confirm or deny if the activism led to its decision to pull out.
Politico was unable to obtain comment from the host committee or from Adelson.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish קאָנצערט לכּבֿוד דעם ייִדישן שרײַבער און רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלערConcert honoring Yiddish writer and editor Boris Sandler
דער בעל־שׂימחה האָט יאָרן לאַנג געדינט ווי דער רעדאַקטאָר פֿונעם ייִדישן פֿאָרווערטס.
-
Fast Forward Trump’s new pick for surgeon general blames the Nazis for pesticides on our food
-
Fast Forward Jewish feud over Trump escalates with open letter in The New York Times
-
Fast Forward First American pope, Leo XIV, studied under a leader in Jewish-Catholic relations
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.