Sheldon Adelson
Sheldon AdelsonReuters

Jewish American billionaire Sheldon Adelson on Thursday night revealed he will be supporting Donald Trump in his presidential campaign, and stated that the real estate mogul will be a good president in strengthening ties with Israel.

Speaking to the New York Times at a gala dinner in Manhattan for the Jewish organization World Values Network, the casino magnate said he will back Trump now that he's the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

"Yes, I'm a Republican, he's a Republican. He's our nominee. Whoever the nominee would turn out to be, any one of the 17 - he was one of the 17. He won fair and square," said Adelson.

He added that Trump "will be good for Israel."

The statement by Adelson, who is also known as a backer of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, comes after a Trump adviser on Wednesday said he will not pressure Israel into concessions as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton would likely do.

Earlier this week Trump supported Israel's right to build in Judea and Samaria, and on Wednesday he told a haredi magazine that "violence towards Israel is also violence towards us."

Adelson's support for Trump comes after the billionaire did not officially endorse any candidate during the Republican presidential primaries, even though he expressed willingness to back Trump in March.

That willingness came despite an initial altercation between the two in October, when Trump took aim at Adelson and wrote on Twitter that the billionaire wanted to make Senator Mark Rubio (R-FL) "his perfect little puppet" in the Republican race.

However, the two met in December and apparently sorted out their differences. Adelson later said they discussed Israel, and said he found Trump to be "very charming."