What sex tape? Adelson sticks by the Donald
DESPITE THE emergence on Friday of a tape in which Donald Trump boasts about his ability to sexually assault women at will, a key Republican donor, casinomogulSheldonAdelson,isstanding by the presidential candidate.
No official comment has come from Mr Adelson’s office but, on Sunday, the billionaire’s Israeli freesheet,
—asupporterof IsraeliPrimeMinister BenjaminNetanyahu—attemptedtoput a pro-Trump slant on the affair.
The daily’s front-page headline was “Trump apologises, the US is in uproar” and much of the coverage was devoted to new Wikileaks revelations about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and decades-old allegations of sexual impropriety against her husband, former president Bill Clinton. The paper described the latest furore surrounding Mr Trump as “a lot of hypocrisy”.
Earlier this year, during the primaries season, the coverage was much more friendly to other Republican candidates, particularly Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who were both initially favoured over Mr Trump by the Adelsons. And, despite Mr Adelson’s continuing support of the Trump campaign, he has been much more reluctant to donate to it directly, as in previous elections.
He was reported to have been frustrated by Mr Trump’s conduct on the campaign trail and to have urged him i n a private meeting to show “humility”. Reports last month that he would be donating $25m to the Trump campaign have yet to be confirmed.
One indication of how Mr Trump has beentryingtoconvincethemega-donor to open his wallet has been the Republicancandidate’srepeatedcriticismof the nuclear agreement with Iran — an issue over which Mr Netanyahu has sparred frequently with the Obama adminis- t r at i on. I n l a s t w e e k ’ s vice-presidential debate, Mr Trump’s running-mate, Mike Pence, accused Democratic vicepresidential candidate Tim Kaine of “boycotting” Mr Netanyahu’s speech to Congress last year.
Mr Netanyahu himself has been very careful not to indicate a preference for either candidate and is known to be uneasy about the prospect of President Trump. At the same time, he is also Yisrael Hayom worried about a Clinton presidency. Stolen emails sent to Mrs Clinton’s campaignchief,JohnPodesta, which appeared over the weekend on Wikileaks, detailed concern among Mr Netanyahu’s inner circle that, as President, Mrs Clinton could place the blame for the lack of progress in the Israel-Palestinian diplomatic process on the Israeli side.