President Donald Trump’s megadonor Miriam Adelson agreed to donate a quarter-billion dollars to his campaign if he decides to run for an unconstitutional third term in office.
During a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Tuesday, the president called up some of his biggest supporters to say a few words before launching into his own remarks.
About 10 minutes into the event, he invited Adelson—wife of the late billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson—to the podium and praised her for giving his campaign “indirectly and directly $250 million.”
Adelson, 80, took the opportunity to encourage Trump, 79, to run for a third term in 2028.
“I met Alan Dershowitz and he said the legal thing about four more years, and I said, ‘Alan, I agree with you. We can do it!’ Think about it,” Adelson told Trump.
Several people in the crowd began chanting, “Four more years!” as Adelson hugged Trump and said something inaudible as she prepared to leave the stage.
The president then told the crowd, “She said, ‘Think about it, I’ll give you another $250 million.’”
“I will,” Adelson agreed.
Miriam and Sheldon Adelson were Trump’s biggest donors in 2016 and 2020, and after Sheldon died in 2021, Miriam remained a staunch supporter for the 2024 campaign, donating more than $100 million.
On Tuesday, the president recalled how casino magnate Sheldon Adelson used to lobby him to adopt pro-Israel policies.
“He’d call and say, ‘Can I come over please?’ I’d say, ‘Sheldon, I’m president of the United States, it doesn’t work that way anymore. Like, maybe tomorrow? How about tomorrow?’” Trump said.
Sheldon Adelson, however, would insist, promising that he only needed 10 minutes.
“It turned out to be about an hour-and-a-half, and what he did is he fought for Israel,” Trump remembered. “That’s all he really fought for. Just wanted to take care. He just wanted to take care of Israel, so he was a great guy. He was a fantastic man.”
Miriam Adelson, who was born and raised in Tel Aviv, has long advocated for the U.S. to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, New York Magazine reported last year.
During her brief appearance at the White House podium, she didn’t elaborate on her conversation with Dershowitz, a celebrity attorney who has represented both Trump and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Other speakers, however, hinted at the supposed justification for encouraging Trump to run again.
“Six years ago, I was up here and I said, ‘This is our first Jewish president,’” Fox News host Mark Levin told crowd. “Now he’s the first Jewish president to serve two not consecutive presidencies.”
The president and his supporters have repeatedly floated the idea of Trump running for a third term in office, despite the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution explicitly stating, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Some MAGA members have suggested the amendment should be interpreted as a prohibition on more than two consecutive terms, without pointing to anything in the amendment’s text that would support that reading.
Trump nevertheless keeps a collection of MAGA red baseball caps with slogans like “Trump 2028” and “4 More Years” that he has shown off to world leaders and used to troll Democratic lawmakers during a high-stakes meeting in the Oval Office.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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