Trump awards Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson, Elvis, 5 others
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump recognized seven “extraordinary Americans,” including Las Vegas physician and philanthropist Miriam Adelson, with the nation’s highest civilian honor in a White House ceremony Friday.
Trump presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Adelson as well as retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and two NFL Hall of Famers, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and former Minnesota Vikings player and Supreme Court Justice Alan C. Page.
Trump also issued the award posthumously to music legend Elvis Presley, baseball legend Babe Ruth and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Adelson was recognized for her work as a philanthropist and humanitarian, and as a doctor specializing in the treatment of narcotic addiction, according to the White House.
As a leader in the American Jewish community, she and her husband, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, also have supported Birthright Israel, Holocaust memorial organizations, Jewish schools and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
The Adelsons also own the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Israel Hayom newspapers.
Trump saluted Miriam Adelson for helping thousands of people break with addiction, and noted the Adelsons’ role in his decision to open the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
“Through decades of innovative research, philanthropy and treatment, Miriam has helped thousands break free from their addiction to drugs and alcohol,” Trump said. “I know the work you’ve done, and you have been truly incredible.”
“I am deeply humbled and moved by this exceptional honor,” Miriam Adelson said in a statement released Saturday, when the White House announced the honorees.
“Liberty is at the heart of my decades of work against substance abuse. Drug dependency is enslavement, for the user and his or her family and society, and treatment an emancipation.
“Together, my husband, Sheldon, and I have dedicated our lives to freedom: to a free market that benefits the greater good and to philanthropic endeavors that succor those suffering from poverty and disease.”
Trump’s first Medals of Freedom
The ceremony marked the first time Trump issued Medals of Freedom, a recognition that often provides observers a window into a president’s soul.
During the ceremony, Trump quipped about liking Hatch because Hatch instantly liked him.
Six U.S. Supreme Court Justices attended to honor the late Scalia, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who fractured three ribs in a fall earlier this month. “I’m glad to see you’re doing well,” Trump said.
Scalia’s widow, Maureen, accepted the medal for her husband as Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s choice to succeed Scalia, looked on. Trump named all nine of the Scalias’ children. “You were busy,” the president observed. “Wow. I always knew I liked him.”
When Trump recognized Babe Ruth — “the Sultan of Swat, the Great Bambino” — he marveled that the baseball legend had not received a Medal of Freedom.
The president also praised Presley — “the King, as he was known by everybody” — for serving in the military at the height of his career. Trump recalled seeing Presley perform in Las Vegas at the Hilton.
“The fans were ripping the place apart, screaming” until they were told, “Elvis has left the house,” he said.
Adelson’s accomplishments
Miriam Adelson, who was born in Haifa, Israel, worked as an internist and emergency room physician at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine. She studied chemical dependency and drug addiction as an exchange student at Rockefeller University in New York, where she met Sheldon Adelson. They married in 1991.
The couple opened their first drug abuse clinic in Tel Aviv in 1993. Miriam Adelson helped develop a methadone program for teen addicts and has co-authored numerous research papers on methadone treatment.
In 2000, the Adelsons opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research in Las Vegas to help treat painkiller and opioid addiction. She still shows up for work at the Las Vegas clinic.
The Center for Responsive Politics lists the Adelsons as the nation’s largest donors to independent expenditure organizations, directing more than $113 million to Republican candidates in the 2018 election cycle. The couple also donated $5 million to Trump’s inauguration committee.
The Adelsons’ political contributions triggered criticism that the donations influenced Trump’s decision to bestow the Medal of Freedom on Miriam Adelson.
However, the Washington Free Beacon noted that the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation funded more than $110 million in grants from 2011 to 2015.
“The complaints against a medal for Dr. Adelson are ridiculous” in light of her work on addictive diseases, Elliott Abrams, who served as an assistant Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, told the Free Beacon.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.
Miriam Adelson
— Chairman, The Dr. Miriam & Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research.
— Internist and emergency room physician.
— Developed specialty in chemical dependency at Rockefeller University in New York City.
— Developed methadone treatment for teenage addicts.
— Co-authored numerous research papers on methadone treatment and drug addiction.
— Miriam and Sheldon Adelson are active in the Las Vegas Jewish community and generous supporters of many organizations, including Birthright Israel, the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, the Zionist Organization of America, AIPAC, ADL and many other Jewish and non-sectarian organizations.
— In 2000, the Adelsons opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas. In 1993 they opened a clinic in Tel Aviv.
