Only a day after nominating Colorado federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch for the vacant spot on the United States Supreme Court and President Donald Trump has reportedly asked casino billionaire Steve Wynn to become the new Finance Chairman for the Republican National Committee.
According to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, 75-year-old Wynn was previously Vice-Chairman for Trump’s inaugural committee where he helped to bring in close to $100 million while his new role will see him endeavor to raise as much cash as possible for the Republican Party ahead of next year’s mid-term elections.
Connecticut-born Wynn is Chief Executive Officer for Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts Limited, which has a portfolio that includes the Wynn Macau and Wynn Las Vegas casino properties while it is hoping to open its $2.1 billion Wynn Boston Harbor development by June of 2019, and he reportedly donated $833,000 to Republican joint fundraising committees last year.
“Steve Wynn is deeply committed to Nevada and the Las Vegas community,” Dean Heller, the Republican senior United States Senator from Nevada, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We wish him the best in this opportunity. He will surely make Nevada proud.”
The newspaper reported that the invitation is being seen as a final reconciliation between Wynn and Trump as the 1980s saw each file lawsuits against the other in an attempt to gain ultimate supremacy in the American casino market. In his 1987 book The Art Of The Deal, the newly-inaugurated President wrote that his rival was “very slick and smooth” but that he was also “a very strange guy” while Wynn told The Wall Street Journal via a 1996 interview that Trump was “all hat [and] no cattle”.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that this animosity even extended to political contributions with Wynn donating $2,700 to Marco Rubio in 2015 as the junior Florida United States Senator attempted to gain the Republican nomination for President while he additionally handed over $5,000 to other pro-Rubio groups.
However, Wynn reportedly shifted his support to Trump following the 70-year-old’s election in November and even went so far as to cease stocking glasses and cosmetics from Tom Ford at his Wynn Las Vegas property after the American designer declared that he would not fashion clothing for incoming First Lady Melania Trump.
“I know Steve [and] he loves America,” Republican Party strategist John Weaver told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “No one will work harder or more effectively. I think it’s an inspired and brilliant choice.”
The newspaper moreover reported that, like Trump, Wynn has donated to both Republican and Democratic campaigns over the years and handed over $20,000 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee in 2000 before last year giving some $10,000 to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee.
“Here in Las Vegas political party affiliation doesn’t mean [as much as it does in other areas],” Jim Lamb, former President for the Nevada Republican Men’s Club, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s mostly alliances to individuals and whoever happens to be in power.”