Trump Calls Mavericks Owner ‘Darling’ and ‘Great Woman’ During Israeli Hostage Release

In Israel this morning, while finalizing a hostage negotiation between Israel and Hamas, President Donald Trump gave a shout-out to one of his largest contributors, Dallas Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson. 

“Look at Miriam, she’s back there,” Trump said as he addressed the Knesset, the governing body of Israel. “Stand up, you know, stand up. Miriam and Sheldon would come into the office … I think they’d have more trips to the White House than anybody else.”

For years, the Adelsons, as a couple, were among the largest political donors to Republican causes and candidates in the country. In 2016, Sheldon Adelson donated more than $20 million to Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. After his death in 2021, Miriam Adelson continued his legacy with megabuck donations, contributing $106 million to a Trump re-election Super PAC in the last election cycle. 

Adelson is a Dallasite only through business ventures, having purchased the Mavericks from Mark Cuban for $3.5 billion in 2023. Since then, the Vegas-based family has been campaigning for legalized gambling with a resort-style casino in North Texas with their seam-busting wallets. 

Adelson and her various companies and associated PACs have addressed six- and seven-figure checks to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Rep. Dade Phelan, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and even the rising Democratic senatorial candidate James Talarico. 

Adelson’s wide business portfolio includes the Israel Halyom, the nation’s most widely distributed print publication. Adelson, who was born in Tel Aviv, remains the publisher of the free daily newspaper, which has attracted scrutiny for its right-wing editorial choices, which often favor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“She loves this country,” Trump said Monday morning. “She loves this country. … But I actually asked her, what do you love more, the United States or Israel? She refused to answer. That might mean Israel. We love you. Thank you, darling, for being here. She is a great woman.”

Adelson has remained a strong advocate for Israel and Zionist movements, contributing $100,000 to the Zionist Organization of America in 2022. Using her connections in the print industry, Adelson penned an op-ed for Forbes Israel about the Israel-Hamas War in 2023. 

“If you condemn Hamas and then add a “but” followed by condemnation of Israel, you’re dead to us,” she wrote. “We Israelis, we Jews love life. And we are done with meekly counting our dead. We have given so much to the world, so much to generations of civilization. Now it is time for some reciprocity.”     

Adelson traveled to Israel for the exchange of hostages between Israel and Hamas, a clause of a recently brokered ceasefire assisted by President Trump. The ceasefire follows two years of war along the Gaza Strip. Twenty hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were returned to Israel. Nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released by the Israeli government in exchange. 

“At last, not only for Israelis but also Palestinians, the long and painful nightmare is finally over,” Trump said.