Republican Mega-Donor Sheldon Adelson: I’m Paying 10,000 Employees to Avoid Layoffs

Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson published an op-ed in the New York Post on Wednesday evening explaining that he is still paying his employees even though his businesses are closed — and encouraged others to do the same.

Adelson — a frequent target of left-wing attacks, particularly during elections — recalled his own rise from poverty in explaining why he was keeping 10,000 employees on the payroll though his casino hotel resorts were closed:

Although the resort hotels of my company, Las Vegas Sands, are shuttered, I’m paying every one of our nearly 10,000 employees as though they were still working. We’re even working to make up for lost tips. I hope to do that right up until the time that we can reopen our businesses.

It’s not only the right thing to do — it’s good business.

I’ve often said the story of my career would be a true rags-to-riches account, except for the fact that my parents couldn’t even afford the rags. As the son of hard-working, low-income, immigrant parents, I grew up with the same anxiety people across the nation are feeling right now.

…

To my fellow corporate executives who are looking at spreadsheets and trying to determine the impact this crisis will have on sales and share prices, let me say: Our job as business leaders is now as simple as it is challenging. It is to maximize the number of employees and their families that we can help — and help them for as long as possible.

Adelson noted that Las Vegas, where he is based, has suffered many recent crises — and bounced back each time.

Last year, the 86-year-old Adelson, who is a benefactor to many philanthropic organizations as well as to conservative causes, announced that he was fighting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

He was to have hosted President Donald Trump at his Venetian resort in Las Vegas during the annual spring leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition last month.

The president canceled his trip, however, to focus on the fight against coronavirus.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.