Former President Donald Trump reportedly directed an aide to send a series of angry text messages in his name to a billionaire megadonor whose political action committee planned to spend $100 million to boost his campaign.
The texts accused Dr. Miriam Adelson of hiring "RINOs" — Republicans in name only — to run her Preserve America super PAC, according to the New York Times, which cited three people with knowledge of what happened.
The texts also alleged that Adelson's late husband — casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who was a longtime Republican megadonor — never would have tolerated the situation, the Times reported Saturday.
At the time of Trump's July 25 outburst, Preserve America was reportedly spending nearly $18 million on a week's worth of pro-Trump ads in three swing states.
Adelson was stunned by the texts, especially because they arrived a week after she and Trump had a friendly meeting at last month's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the Times said, citing a person briefed on the matter.
The messages also reportedly prompted as-yet unrealized concerns that Adelson, whose family fortune is estimated by Forbes at $27.5 billion, might scale back her support of Trump, who has seen his poll numbers slip since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as his Democratic rival.
Aides to Adelson learned that Trump had been encouraged by another major donor, former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter, who had hoped in vain that Adelson would contribute to a rival super PAC he supports, the Times said.
Brian Hughes, a Trump campaign senior adviser, said in a statement to the Times that Trump "continues to run a winning campaign and has built a movement focused on making our nation great again."
An Adelson adviser declined to comment and a lawyer for Perlmutter didn't respond to an email inquiry, the Times said.
In June, the Times reported that Adelson was making moves to spend more than $90 million to support Trump's third White House bid, and that Preserve America was planning on a total budget of about $100 million.
That amount is slightly more than Adelson and her late husband spent backing Trump's 2020 failed campaign against Biden, the Times said.
