Why Trump—And The Right—Want To Take Down Billionaire George Soros

Trump Threatens Soros With Domestic Terrorism Investigation, But...

While blaming left-wing groups for coordinating political violence after Charlie Kirk’s assassination last month, Trump said he would launch domestic terrorism probes into radical groups and individuals, including Soros, though he did not present evidence of any wrongdoing by the billionaire. A senior Justice Department official has since instructed several U.S. attorneys’ offices to draft plans to investigate Soros’ philanthropy, the Open Society Foundations, as a Trump administration official repeated right-wing claims an alleged $80 million in donations from the charity to “groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence,” the New York Times reported (Open Society Foundations decried the claims as “politically motivated attacks on civil society”). When nudging prosecutors to prosecute Soros, however, the Justice Department cited a report from Capital Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, which does not explicitly show Soros’ philanthropy knowingly paid grantees to break the law, or that funds received from the Open Society Foundations were used to commit acts of violence or terrorism. But Capital Research Center president Scott Walter told the Times his group had not found evidence that Soros’ philanthropy had committed a crime, noting they were “surprised” the DOJ suggested prosecutors use the report.

What Else Has Donald Trump Said About George Soros?

Trump has long been a critic of the Soros family and supported many of the theories surrounding George Soros over the last decade. In an ad at the end of his first presidential campaign, Trump condemns the “corrupt political establishment” while claiming his administration would “take back this country for you” as images of Soros, former Fed Chair Janet Yellen and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, all of whom are Jewish, were featured. The Anti-Defamation League and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., called out Trump for promoting the antisemitic trope that Jewish figures controlled the government. In 2023, Trump falsely claimed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opened an investigation into hush money payments Trump made to adult film star Stormy Daniels because Bragg was paid by Soros. Trump’s claim appeared to be rooted in a $1 million donation Soros made to the Color of Change PAC, which spent nearly $500,000 in support of Bragg’s 2021 campaign, in addition to a $7 million donation a nonprofit affiliated with the Open Society Foundations gave to Color of Change’s 501(c)(4). Soros denied the conspiracy and said of Bragg, “I don’t know him,” and he believed “some on the right” would prefer to focus on the “far-fetched” theories linking him to Bragg rather than the “serious charges against the former president.”