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Miriam Adelson: The Largest Donor and the Iran War

Miriam Adelson is an Israeli-American billionaire, a physician by training, and the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021. Together the Adelsons were for years the largest donors in Republican politics and among the most committed supporters of Israel's right-wing governments. In the 2024 election, Miriam Adelson was one of the largest single contributors to the President's campaign. When people inside and around the administration explain how the war on Iran happened, her name comes up first.

Why she matters to this story​

The thesis of this section is that American war policy on Iran was steered by Israel's government and its supporters in the United States. Donors are one of the channels. A donor who gives on the scale of the Adelsons gains access to the President that no ordinary citizen has. What matters is not whether any single decision was bought, which no document shows, but whether the people with the most access all pushed the same way.

What people close to the decision say​

Joe Kent, the President's former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, asked in September 2026 how the President was brought into the war:

"The Israel lobby is vast and it runs very deep in Washington D.C. But speaking directly to President Trump, you have Miriam Adelson, you have quite a few other prominent pro-Israel donors in America who made major contributions to President Trump's campaign. That gives them a certain degree of access into the White House."

(Going Underground on X, September 26, 2026). Kent named her first.

Rep. Thomas Massie, in May 2026, listing what he sees as the President's mistakes on Iran:

"finally, [maybe his] biggest mistake is letting Israel control too much of his policy. Perhaps it was taking $200 million from Miriam Adelson"

(Sense Receptor on X, May 27, 2026). The "$200 million" is Massie's figure.

Stephen Walt, the Harvard scholar who co-wrote The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, writing in March 2026:

"Trump himself has acknowledged his own debt to ardent pro-Israel figures such as the late Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam. As Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick recount in a recent article in the Nation (and a soon-to-be-published book), Trump singled out Miriam Adelson—the largest single contributor in recent US elections—during his address to the Knesset in October 2025, and even speculated that she might love Israel more than the United States."

(Walt in Al Majalla, March 2026). The President's own remark, in Israel's parliament, that his largest donor might love Israel more than America is the clearest statement of the concern.

The figures in circulation​

Posts critical of the Israel relationship cite larger totals. One widely shared list says "Pro-Israel donors gave over $230 million (the largest single contribution in history), including $100M+ from Miriam Adelson" (Wayne Waldrop on X, June 4, 2026); another essay lists "Adelson '$100M+'" (Michael Rectenwald on X, April 28, 2026). Those are the authors' figures; the Federal Election Commission is the place to check the exact amounts. One poster reduced the argument to five words: "adelson bought Trump" (@JayRhodes2025, June 8, 2026). That is an opinion, not a finding; no document shows a donation was exchanged for a decision.

The Adelson record on Iran​

Critics recall Sheldon Adelson's hard line on Iran. Actor John Cusack, listing the people and groups he blames for pushing war with Iran, wrote that "Sheldon Adelson (deceased) once suggested nuking Iran's desert," and named "Zionist billionaires like Sheldon Adelson and Paul Singer" as backers of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (Cusack on X, June 19, 2025). Those are Cusack's characterizations.

What a citizen can check​

  • The Federal Election Commission's records of Miriam Adelson's contributions to the President's campaign and allied super PACs in 2024.
  • The transcript of the President's October 2025 address to the Knesset.
  • Whether any member of Congress who received Adelson-linked money voted on the Iran war powers resolutions, and how.

Status: Miriam Adelson — Alive. Sheldon Adelson — Deceased (2021). Joe Kent, Thomas Massie, Stephen Walt, Eli Clifton, Ian Lustick, Donald Trump, Paul Singer, and John Cusack are alive. Political donations are legal; nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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