The Israeli-American Trump mega-donor behind speech crackdowns

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.