Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, finally gave $10 million in September to mega-donor Todd Ricketts’s pro-Trump super PAC Future45, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission. The group raised another $2.3 million from Todd Ricketts’ billionaire father, TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, and energy executives Joe Craft and Jay Bergman.
According to a Politico analysis, only $68.7 million out of the $212 million Trump collected over the past three months in joint ventures with the RNC and state parties ended up in his campaign coffers, with $63.5 going to overhead expenses: consultants, catering, space rentals, list rentals, direct mail and online ads. Another $9.3 million is earmarked for special RNC accounts for convention expenses. The rest was split with the RNC and state parties. According to the FEC filings, the Hillary Clinton campaign spent only 22 cents on overhead for every dollar raised, compared with Trump’s 30.
Back in September, The Guardian reported that Adelson was planning to donate as much as $25 million to Future45. Later that figure was reduced to a mere $5 million, and now, apparently, they settled on $10 million.
Last week, Trump mentioned Adelson at a rally in Nevada, when he referred to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the largest newspaper in Nevada, which Adelson purchased through a proxy last year. “Good paper, owned by a great guy — Sheldon, Sheldon, Sheldon Adelson,” Trump said, adding that Adelson is a “big supporter of Israel.”
Statements from both presidential campaigns made on Saturday showed Clinton leading with $154 million raised in September and $150 million cash on hand, to Trump’s $100 million raised and $75 million in the hand.