Donald Trump Miriam Adelson
The Israeli-American Trump mega-donor behind speech crackdowns
Miriam Adelson is more than a funder of the Maccabee Task Force, she's also its presiden

 

The Trump administration’s effort to deport a Columbia University graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil, in retaliation for Khalil’s role in campus protests opposing Israel’s war in Gaza, showed the lengths the White House is prepared to go to police speech about Israel. 

The administration’s unprecedented decision to seek the deportation of a U.S. permanent resident without bringing any criminal charges has an overlooked ally, however: the largest financier of Trump’s three presidential campaigns, Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson.

Adelson’s support for the administration’s campaign to stifle criticism of Israel on college campuses isn’t a new focus but her alignment with the levers of state powers to implement her vision are unprecedented. In fact, tax documents reveal that she is directly overseeing a social media campaign targeting Khalil and Columbia University. 

In 2015, Adelson, alongside her husband Sheldon, who died in 2021, funded the newly formed Maccabee Task Force (MTF) with $2.28 million, according to IRS filings from the couple’s foundation. MTF claims to “combat the disturbing spread of Antisemitism on college campuses” but in practice spends much of its efforts attacking the boycott, divest and sanctions campaign against Israel, which MTF characterizes as “an Antisemitic movement that crosses the line from legitimate criticism of Israel into the dangerous demonization of Israel and its supporters.” 

The Adelsons’ support for the group has ballooned since 2015, totalling nearly $70 million in funds flowing from the couple’s family foundation to MTF between 2016 and 2023.

At the same time, the couple served as the largest donors to Trump’s presidential campaigns and to the Republican Party, sending approximately $600 million in reported political contributions to support Trump’s three presidential campaigns as well as other Republican congressional and gubernatorial races since 2015.

Trump’s decision to target Khalil wades into murky waters. His attempt to deport a U.S. permanent resident for protesting Israel’s war in Gaza is polarizing and raises questions about why the president is so determined to protect the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance — a recipient of U.S. tax dollars proven exempt from Trump’s blitz against foreign aid — from criticism on college campuses. But one doesn’t have to look far to see he has an ally in this fight.

While Maccabee Task Force’s website makes no mention of Miriam Adelson, the group’s most recent IRS filing reveals she is far more than just its major funder. The Israeli-American billionaire is also MTF’s president. And under her leadership the group — with its sizable social media presence, particularly on Facebook where it has over 317,000 followers — came out swinging against Khalil and Columbia University with vitriolic and profane attacks.

“FAFO,” read a March 6 post from MTF, shorthand for “fuck around and find out,” a phrase warning that actions have consequences. “The sad truth is that the admin at Columbia couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to care about the safety of Jewish students until the Whitehouse [sic] threatened the prospect of losing $5B,” said MTF. “And even then, they still might think it’s better to appease the pro-terror mob. Not on our dime.”

The Adelson led and funded group went even further than attacking Columbia, it launched attacks on Mahmoud Khalil himself, claiming he was a “Hamas supporter,” when no evidence backing this claim has been provided, cheered that “Deporting Mahmoud Khalil after wreacking [sic] havoc at Columbia U campus is a positive step in the right direction,” and claimed(again without providing evidence) that “Mahmoud Khalil came to the US to promote chaos and destruction.”

The social media posts also cheered on the Trump administration’s threat to permanently withhold funding from Columbia unless the university implemented a variety of reforms, including the adoption of a definition of antisemitism that equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. 

In response to Columbia suspending, expelling, and revoking degrees from 22 students for their involvement in campus protests, MTF said, “They waited until $400M in grants were yanked. They could have shown moral character at any point but chose not to.”

Civil liberties groups denounced Khalil’s arrest as posing a dangerous precedent for targeting U.S. permanent residents for speech protected by the First Amendment.

“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American,” Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a statement issued following the arrest. “The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes.”

“This is America,” said a statement by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “We don't throw people in detention centers because of their politics. Doing so betrays our national commitment to freedom of speech.”

While civil liberties groups focus on core American principals of freedom of speech, MTF’s own social media presence is managed by individuals who might not have as deep a familiarity with the First Amendment. According to Facebook, two of the seven managers of the massively popular Facebook page targeting Khalil, Columbia, and American college campuses are based thousands of miles away in Israel.

Nathan Miller, a spokesperson for MTF and former Director of Speechwriting for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, did not respond to multiple requests for comment asking for details about Adelson’s day to day involvement with MTF, whether MTF had any contact with the White House or State Department regarding the attempted deportation of Khalil, whether MTF had any evidence to support their claim that Khalil is a “Hamas supporter” and “came to the US to promote chaos and destruction,” and why the Facebook page targeting American campus protesters and universities is partially managed by individuals in Israel.

 

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/miriam-adelson-trump/

 

 

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

 

American medical giants have labelled the federal government's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) "egregious and discriminatory" and have pressed US President Donald Trump to target Australia when he imposes sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on trading partners next month.

A lengthy letter sent from a US pharmaceutical industry representative body to US trade representative Jamieson Greer said the PBS amounted to "damaging pricing policies" that undervalued American innovation and threatened billions of dollars in lost sales.

Under the PBS, the government negotiates prices directly with suppliers to make them cheaper for Australians.

It also seeks to list the most cost-effective version of medicines where multiple are available, led by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC). About 900 prescription medicines are currently on the scheme.

The letter argues this process "systematically devalues US medicines" and fails to "appropriately recognise innovation" by preferencing cheaper "generic" versions of medicines rather than the higher-priced originals in some circumstances.

"[Australia] penalises legitimate efforts by innovators to protect their intellectual property rights," the letter read.

The Trump administration intends to impose fresh tariffs in April on countries it believes employ "unfair" trade practices, a term that has been applied extremely broadly, including to sales taxes such as Australia's GST.

The purpose of the letter is to encourage the Trump administration to regard the PBS, and several other medicine schemes around the world, as an unfair practice and impose tariffs in response, for instance on Australia's own pharmaceutical exports into the US.

'No way' PBS will change, say Labor ministers

Labor has already categorically ruled out touching the PBS in any trade negotiations, and ministers have been quick to emphasise the Trump administration could not exert any direct influence on the scheme.

"There's no way we're going to change the PBS because of advocacy of any other country," Health Minister Mark Butler said on Sunday.

"This is a cherished part of the Australian healthcare system, one that Labor has fought for 75 years."

Trade Minister Don Farrell on Sunday dismissed discussion about the PBS as "speculation" and said he had "not heard one comment from any person in the United States" on the subject.

"There will be absolutely nothing that the Americans can do to impact on our health system or the PBS system," he said.

"And we certainly would not contemplate doing anything at any stage that makes our health system more expensive."

Instead, the government fears that frustrations over the PBS could see the Trump administration retaliate by hitting Australian pharmaceutical exports — which were worth $US1.2 billion ($1.89 billion) in 2023 — with punitive tariffs.

One government source stressed that the situation in the US was still "very uncertain" and that it simply was not clear whether Mr Trump would run with the grievances raised by US pharma giants.

"We simply don't know what the administration is, or is not, going to do at this stage, so we need to approach this carefully and calmly," they said.

They also said that while Australia's much-touted trade deficit with the US did not protect it from steel and aluminium tariffs, it might still push Australia "down the list" when Mr Trump picked his priority trade targets in April.

The Coalition's health spokesperson Anne Ruston said the opposition "does not support President Trump's tariffs and would not support any proposals that would increase health costs for consumers and/or the Australian taxpayer".

She said the PM should "travel to the United States as a matter of urgency for a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump".

US cattle industry also lobbies for tariffs

The US cattle industry is also using the Trump administration's trade review to target Australian beef exports to the US.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association told the administration that the free trade deal between the US and Australia was "by far the most lopsided and unfair trade deal for US cattle producers".

The association said while Australia enjoyed "unfettered access to the US market", the Australian government used "myriad of sanitary concerns and endless bureaucratic red tape to delay the approval of US beef".

"This is a slap in the face to US cattle producers and enough is enough," it wrote.

"If the Australians will not accept our beef products, then it is only fair that we reciprocate."

Mr Trump has said little about the pharmaceutical industry since returning to office, although he recently accused Ireland of unfairly luring US medicine companies away from America.

And when he was last in office Mr Trump repeatedly blamed foreign countries for the high price of medicines in the United States, saying they were taking advantage of US investment in medical research without paying a fair price for the drugs they developed.

Senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre Bruce Wolpe said the price controls on pharmaceuticals in Australia could easily attract Mr Trump's attention.

"Australia's market are significant to the industry, but it's a big global industry. In just raw political terms in Washington, the pharmaceutical industry has more political clout in the United States than it has in Australia," he told the ABC.

"This is an easy one for the president to give to big pharma and their agenda, which they will deeply appreciate, which goes into other calculations in other health policy decisions in the United States and in Congress."

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-19/australia-defends-pbs-us-pharma-urges-reciprocal-tariffs/105072750

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.