When Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky recently stood next to Trump in search of support against Russia, looking like a kid being chewed out by the school principal, Trump reminded him that “it takes two to tango.” But, when it comes to Israel, Trump only sees a soloist, minding its own business and inexplicably eliciting the wrath of its neighbors. And Trump just can’t seem to shut up about it.
That isn’t what his base signed up for. On the anniversary of the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters from Gaza attacked Israeli civilians at an adjacent music festival following years of anti-Palestinian oppression, Trump had a variety of options. His base expects him mainly just to butt out and focus on problems that affect the daily lives of Americans – not all of whom live in Israel, contrary to perception.
Trump fancies himself such a peacemaker on Ukraine that he’s said he could resolve that conflict in a jiffy. But when it comes to Israel, he’s all gung-ho about warfare and fiercely pro-Israel – a stark contrast to Harris, who appears more neutral on the issue. This has led some to wonder if there’s something more sinister lurking behind Trump’s support for Israeli militarism. Could it be that he’s just pandering to wealthy donors.
The most reasonable explanation for Trump’s sudden passion for Israeli warfare can be found by looking at his campaign sponsors. Mogul Sheldon Adelson was described by Politico in 2021 as the “mega donor who underwrote the GOP’s pro-Israel shift.” Having passed away that same year, his widow, Israeli-born Miriam, reportedly gave President George W. Bush grief over then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s efforts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In moving the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Trump did what Adelson had long wanted. At the time, it seemed like a lot of unnecessary drama. And you have to wonder how much more has already been bankrolled, locked and loaded in anticipation of Trump’s return to office.
NBC News has referred to the “Adelson primary” – a traditional process by which GOP primary candidates met with the mogul in a bid to win his favor, and his cash. The New York Times earlier this year evoked her “$100 million plan to elect Trump” through political action committee donations.
Trump awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018. Surely it had nothing to do with the $20 million in donations to his campaign in 2016, despite only reportedly backing him beginning a couple of months before the vote. During a campaign event over the summer, Trump introduced Miriam Adelson and referenced the award that he gave her, suggesting that it’s equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor for wounded soldiers, except better, because “she’s a healthy, beautiful woman,” unlike soldiers “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.
According to Israeli media outlet i24 News, Trump flipped out over the summer because he didn’t feel that he was getting enough cash from Adelson’s widow, with his assistant reportedly calling her staffers “Republicans in name only.” All this would certainly serve to explain why he’s upped the volume on Adelson’s single cause in the final stretch of the campaign – the same time frame in which Trump scored all the Adelson cash that contributed to his first election win.
In any case, it’s a bad look. It feels like something is glaringly off, and there’s a lack of transparency as to what’s behind it all. It’s no secret that establishment politicians like Harris cater to the military industrial complex, which Trump routinely denounces. But Trump is raising the possibility among his supporters that there’s something even potentially more shady than that lurking behind his pandering. And the risk he takes in persisting with it is that voters could either stay home or decide to vote for the devil they know.