Billionaire investor George Soros, whose left-leaning donations have triggered criticism from right-wingers for years, has long been painted as “the puppet master and the extreme left-wing manipulator,” as he once sarcastically described himself.
Most of the conspiracy theories involving Soros, 95, have also targeted his nonprofit, Open Society Foundations, which was founded decades ago and is now chaired by his son, Alex Soros. Among the accusations against the Soros-led organization are claims by President Donald Trump that it funds violent protesters.
The vitriol against George Soros resurfaced in the Oval Office on Thursday, when Trump told reporters he thought Soros was a “likely candidate” for an investigation just days after he instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey, California Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Leticia James.
“If you look at Soros, he’s at the top of everything,” Trump added. “He’s in every story that I read, so I guess he’d be a likely candidate.”
Trump’s comments weren’t out of the blue. In August, he said George and Alex Soros should be charged with racketeering.
“George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with (violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Trump’s justice department cited a report from conservative watchdog group Capital Research Center, titled “Exclusive: Soros’ Open Society gave $80 million to pro-terror groups.”
“The Open Society Foundations unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism. Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law,” the group said in a statement on its website, calling such accusations “politically motivated attacks on civil society.”
Donations from Soros
The foundation is a predominantly left-leaning nonprofit. To date, it has spent more than $24 billion, of which $1.2 billion was spent in 2024.
Much of its funding has gone toward “working on access to education and health care, racial justice, drug policy reform, and expanding human rights,” as well as addressing climate change and authoritarianism, according to its website.
The foundation’s network has worked in more than 100 countries, according to Soros’ website. His first donation, according to the site, was giving scholarships to Black South Africans under apartheid in 1979 and, in the 1980s, he funded academic visits to the West for Eastern European dissidents countering communism.
Soros, who has long been a funder of the Democratic Party, donated $125 million to one liberal super PAC in 2021, according to campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets. But wealthy Americans making political contributions is nothing new, and Republicans have their own megadonors, such as Charles Koch, Miriam Adelson and Timothy Mellon.
“Though I am often painted as the representative of the far left — and I am certainly not free of political bias — I recognize that the other side is half right in claiming that the government is wasteful and inefficient and ought to function better,” Soros said during 2011 remarks at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank co-founded by Koch.
In 2020, Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society awarded $150,000 to the Cato Institute, according to the Open Society Foundations’ searchable database. The grant was “to help build a national consensus to end qualified immunity and other policies that undermine victims of police misconduct and police accountability.”
The interesting case of Scott Bessent
Trump has called Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.”
But before serving as one of Trump’s most prominent campaign fundraisers and heading the Treasury Department, Bessent was the managing partner of Soros Fund Management’s London office from 1991 to 2000. He later returned to work for Soros as chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015.
