The Israeli-American Trump mega-donor behind speech crackdowns
Miriam Adelson is
more than a funder of the Macabee Task Force, she's also its president
Mar 18, 2025
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/miriam-adelson-trump/?
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.
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.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario