Who was Steve Alembik? 72-year-old GOP donor involved in racist controversy dies in murder-suicide

On Tuesday, October 10, a controversial Republican donor named Steve Alembik died in an attempted murder-suicide in the parking lot of a BurgerFi outlet in Delray Beach, Florida, as reported by the Miami Herald.

Before shooting himself, he also shot an unidentified woman presumed to be his wife. However, the woman, believed to be in her late 40s ran into the burger joint with gunshot injuries to her back and arm, and eventually survived, after she was rushed to a nearby hospital.

According to the Miami Herald, the cause of Steve Alembik’s suicide remains unknown, however, it is suspected that it was a result of his mental health issues.

Steve Alembik was popular as a major GOP donor contributing over $200,000 in the last two decades, including to campaigns of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

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Steve Alembik was 72 years old at the time of his death

Steve Alembik, who recently succumbed to attempted murder-suicide was 72 years old at the time of his demise. The Boca Raton native was a major donor and a dedicated supporter of the Republican party. In fact, he was popular for donning an American flag suit on several occasions.

He was the co-founder and chief data scientist at SMA Communications, a Florida-based firm specializing in providing data for corporations, political campaigns, nonprofits, government agencies, and more, as per his LinkedIn page.

However, he was also controversial for his racist and insensitive remarks. For instance, he once called former President Barack Obama a “f**king Muslim n**g*r” in a tweet. Around the same time in 2018, he also claimed that then-Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg “can’t die soon enough,” also on Twitter.

When Steve Alembik faced backlash for his comments, he regretted them. However, he argued that he should be allowed to use the “n-word,” as per the New York Post. In fact, during his 2018 interview with Politico, he went on record to ask:

“So, somebody like Chris Rock can get up on stage and use the word and there’s no problem? But some white guy says it and he’s a racist? Really?”

He further continued by telling Politico how he grew up in 1950s New York, where the whites were called “k*nks” and the blacks were called “n**gers.”

Meanwhile, Steve Alembik never differentiated between Republicans. In fact, he donated to both former Florida Governor Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis when they were competitors. However, his tweets about Obama and Ginsberg created controversy, leading Scott to donate a portion of the donation to Shriners Hospital. In contrast, DeSantis returned $11,000, despite spending $4,000 of the funds.

The Republicans publicly pledged not to take money from Alembik in the future, as reported by the Miami Herald.

Interestingly, while Scott lived up to his word, DeSantis’ re-election campaign and state PAC supporting it, called “Friends of Ron DeSantis,” accepted over $5,000 from Steve Alembik in both 2021 and 2022, according to the news outlet.

The GOP donor also made headlines in 2017 when he moved a charity gala for his pro-Israel nonprofit Truth About Israel from Charlotteville to Mar-a-Lago, even though other organizations pulled their entries, after a controversial statement made by Donald Trump about the original venue, as per The Washington Post.

Not only that, he even promoted the ticket sales under false promises that the attendees would get to meet Trump in person, even when he was not scheduled to arrive at the event. He came under fire for the same, apart from other factors including insufficient accommodations and poor-quality food. In fact, at the same event, he took the stage and said:

“This President [Donald Trump] has had Israel’s back, like no President has, since the days of Ronald Reagan.”

He also urged people to extend their support for Trump and went on to raise $7,500 at the charity.

It is also noteworthy that in December 2018, Steve Alembik was taken into police custody on domestic violence charges, which were later dismissed due to pre-trial diversion.