Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

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The letter from the convention’s host committee lists among donors who have withdrawn their pledges David Koch at $1 million, FedEx at $500,000, Visa at $100,000, Pepsi at $500,000 and Coca-Cola at $1 million.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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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.