Sheldon Adelson is a casino magnate as well as a GOP mega-donor. He’s currently the 12th richest person in America and one of the biggest donors to Trump’s presidential campaign.
However, Adelson’s wallet wasn’t always so thick. Born in Boston in 1933, his father was a Jewish cab driver and his mother ran a knitting shop. When he was 12 he took a $200 loan from his uncle to start a newspaper stand, then borrowed $10,000 from him at age 16 to start a candy vending machine business.
He later joined the army as a court reporter. After serving his time, he started a charter travel service, which made him into a billionaire success story. Though competition and a stock market crash set him back, he later created COMDEX, a computer trade show in Las Vegas. This led to his fervor for the gambling industry and he sold COMDEX in order to establish the lavish Vegas resort The Venetian and eventually Las Vegas Sands.
Adelson used to be a Democrat, but became upset with Democrats for taxing the ultra-rich, so he switched sides. He spent over 98 million dollars on anti-Obama ads during the 2012 election. He opened his wallet again in the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump. Being particularly interested in Trump wanting to move the U.S, embassy to Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv, Adelson shelled out millions to help Trump win — and eventually got what he wanted in terms of the embassy move.
In the days after this completion of this video, Adelson made a $30,000,000 donation to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a SuperPAC dedicated to re-electing House Republicans.
