Overview

Background

Born in Tel Aviv and raised in a family that fled Poland before the Holocaust, Adelson studied microbiology and medicine at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, served in medical research during her IDF service, and developed a specialty in chemical dependency and drug addiction. After serving in the army, she worked alongside Mary Jeanne Kreek, known for the development of methadone therapy, for twenty years. Her career began as a physician in the Israeli military and later as chief internist in a Tel Aviv emergency room.

In 1989, Miriam Adelson met Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, and the couple married in 1991. They founded substance abuse clinics in Tel Aviv in 1993 and in Las Vegas in 2000. After Sheldon Adelson's death in 2021, Miriam inherited majority ownership of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the world's largest casino and resort operator. She also became publisher of Israel Hayom, the high-circulation Israeli newspaper the couple founded in 2007 to promote center-right political perspectives. In 2022, Las Vegas Sands sold its assets on the Vegas Strip, including the Venetian Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, to Apollo Global and Vici Properties for $6.25 billion. In November 2023, Adelson expanded her portfolio by acquiring a majority stake in the NBA's Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban for approximately $3.5 billion, making her one of the few women in history to control a major U.S. professional sports franchise.

Over the past decade, she and her late husband spent more than a half-billion dollars on GOP causes. In November 2018, President Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. She has carried on her late husband's politics, though she is seen as more deliberate in her decision-making.

Public Role in the Second Trump Administration

Financial Support for Trump's 2024 Campaign

Adelson donated a total of $111 million to pro-Trump super PACs during the 2024 presidential campaign, making her the campaign's second-biggest financial backer in the election. The money was distributed to her super PAC, Preserve America, which she had seeded earlier with $5 million, in a series of installments of $25 million a month in July, August, and September, with an additional $20 million at the end of September. She and her late husband had also contributed roughly $90 million to Preserve America during Trump's 2020 re-election bid. With her $100 million-plus donation, Adelson ranked as the third-largest individual donor to Trump's campaign, after Elon Musk and the reclusive billionaire Timothy Mellon.

Advocacy on Israel Policy

Miriam and her late husband were influential in Trump's decision during his first term to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In the lead-up to the 2024 election and since, her policy ambitions have been more explicit. Adelson's spokesperson denied a report that she conditioned her financial support for Trump on his public endorsement of Israeli annexation of the West Bank, but a top confidant told the New York Times that she opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Adelson has been involved over the years in Israeli settlement programs in the occupied West Bank, spending millions on Ariel University's medical school, which she once described as a "Zionist wall" and a gift "to strengthen the settlers in Judea and Samaria." As publisher of Israel Hayom, a paper with wide circulation in Israel and close ties to the Netanyahu government, she retains a direct platform for shaping Israeli and American-Jewish political opinion. Notwithstanding Adelson's known preferences, Trump has stated that Israel will lose all of its support from the United States if it annexes the West Bank, and said that Israeli annexation would not happen because he had given his word to Arab countries.

When Trump addressed the Israeli Knesset in October 2025 to mark the Gaza ceasefire agreement, he saluted Miriam Adelson by name, noting that she has "$60 billion in her account" and that "she loves Israel." The public acknowledgment underscored the degree to which Adelson occupies a recognized, if informal, position of influence within Trump's political orbit.

Domestic Political Spending and Congressional Races

Adelson's financial reach extends to congressional and state-level races as well. Her political contributions have extended beyond presidential campaigns; in Texas, Adelson's donations have played a role in state-level Republican primary races, including reported involvement in efforts related to casino gambling legislation in the state. She has also spearheaded a $20 million super PAC campaign, alongside allies like Paul Singer, aimed at unseating Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky ahead of his 2026 primary. Massie, who has declined AIPAC donations and voted against U.S. aid to Israel, represents a strand of Republican politics that Adelson's network has sought to check.

Recent Developments

At the White House's Hanukkah reception in December 2025, Adelson publicly urged Trump to consider running for a third term and, according to Trump's own account delivered to the crowd, offered him $250 million to do so. The exchange was largely theatrical — Trump himself later acknowledged that it is "pretty clear" he is "not allowed to run," signaling a shift from earlier comments in which he had declined to definitively rule out another bid. Still, the episode illustrated the degree of personal rapport between Adelson and the president and reinforced her standing as a fixture of his inner social world.

In 2025, Adelson was also announced as an inductee into the Nevada Business Hall of Fame, alongside Las Vegas Raiders and Las Vegas Aces owner Mark Davis, in recognition of her business and philanthropic activities in the state. Her media properties, including Israel Hayom and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, continue to function as platforms broadly sympathetic to Trump-aligned and pro-Israel political positions.

Outlook

Adelson's influence during Trump's second term rests less on any formal role than on a combination of extraordinary financial resources, a long personal relationship with the president, and a coherent set of policy priorities — above all regarding Israel — that she has pursued consistently across multiple election cycles. Her position at the intersection of business, philanthropy, media ownership, and political influence makes her a figure of significant consequence in both American and Israeli affairs.

Whether her specific policy ambitions — particularly regarding the West Bank — translate into administration action depends heavily on the broader geopolitical pressures Trump faces, including his relationships with Arab governments. What is clear is that Adelson has established herself as a durable force in Republican donor politics independent of her late husband, and that her financial leverage gives her consistent access in a White House that has shown its attentiveness to major donors. She is seen as more deliberate in her decision-making than Sheldon was, and her willingness to spend at scale — and to do so across presidential campaigns, congressional races, and state politics simultaneously — suggests she will remain a prominent figure in conservative political finance for the foreseeable future.