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President Donald Trump has lobbied Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to allow one of his biggest campaign donors, Sheldon Adelson, to build a casino in Japan, according to a new ProPublica report. .
In February 2017, Abe met Trump for the first time at the White House. The two men discussed the possibility of a bilateral trade agreement and the mutual defense treaty between the United States and Japan. Trump described having "a very, very good connection" with the Japanese leader.
That same evening, Trump had dinner with Adelson, owner of Las Vegas Sands and one of the president's main donors. Adelson donated $ 20 million to Trump's 2016 campaign and donated an additional $ 5 million for the inaugural ceremony. Chief Advisor and President Jared Kushner's son-in-law and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson joined both.
The next day, Adelson went to an event where he talked to Abe about casinos. After years of debate, Japan has finally decided to legalize the casinos, opening a new market that, according to experts, could be worth $ 25 billion a year.
After Adelson spoke to Abe, Trump invited the prime minister to his Florida golf club, Mar-a-Lago. It is this weekend that the Japanese president has suggested to the Japanese government to authorize the company Adelson to build a casino, according to the report of ProPublica published Wednesday.
Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
One of the people informed of the exchange between Trump and Abe said that Japanese officials were surprised that the president was so "brazen" in his request that the foreign government support his main donor.
According to this source, Abe thanked the president for the information but did not comment further.
Besides Adelson, Trump spoke to Abe about at least one other casino. Although the accounts differ as to whether the president suggests MGM or Wynn Resorts, the latter is headed by former Republican National Finance Committee chairman Steve Wynn. Nikkei, a Japanese newspaper, reported at the time that Trump had spoken to MGM's Abe.
In a statement to ProPublica, a spokesman for the Adelson company said that "the game industry has long been looking for the opportunity to enter the Japanese market" and that Las Vegas Sands had devoted "significant resources" to conquer of this market.
The White House and the Japanese Embassy in Washington have declined to comment on the story.
Adelson is currently facing a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Democratic Council. The organization accuses Adelson of participating in a "legal sadism" after five years of lawsuits filed by the billionaire for defamation. The court eventually rejected Adelson's request, but the council said she had never recovered.
Adelson and his wife became major contributors to Republican candidates in this mid-term election cycle. According to a recent report by the New York TimesAdelsons spent more than $ 50 million on organizations dedicated to helping the GOP retain control of the House and Senate.
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