Why Trump is going for Soros
The philanthropist is as close as the world’s strongmen get to a cross-border demon
A NEW YORK judge famously said that a good prosecutor could “get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich”. Should US President Donald Trump be sincere in saying the 95-year-old George Soros is a bad man who belongs in jail, a flimsy indictment can surely be arranged.
It is worth pondering that last line. Any doubts that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is Trump’s private revenge vehicle were dispelled last week with James Comey’s indictment. Prosecution of the former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director was publicly demanded by Trump. A season of Washington show trials may now be getting under way.
Soros would be the cherry on Trump’s cake. Unlike others in his sights – such as Mark Milley, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff; Jack Smith, Joe Biden’s former special counsel; and Letitia James, New York’s attorney-general – the president has not directly clashed with Soros. The financier’s prosecutorial value is greater than that; he is detested by strongmen everywhere and seen as the Antichrist on the Maga (Make America Great Again) right.
Among Soros’ chief detractors are Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Because right-wing populism is nationalist, it comes in many varieties. Soros is as close as the world’s strongmen get to a cross-border demon. Hundreds of human-rights groups, investigative journalists, democracy advocates and other disobedient types have received Soros grants.
No global philanthropist comes close to Soros’ US$32 billion funding of such causes. Indeed, the very name of his foundation – Open Society – offers a strong hint. Those who prefer closed societies dislike Soros. Yes, he is a big personal donor to Democratic campaigns, including Hillary Clinton’s in 2016 and Biden’s in 2020 and 2024. But there is nothing unusual in that. Should Trump wish to harass billionaires who bankroll US elections, he would have a wide choice.
Trump’s game is to bring down one of America’s largest non-profit groups, the better to silence the rest.
Last week, he ordered federal law enforcement agencies to go after left-wing US domestic terrorism. He also designated “Antifa” – anti-fascist – as a terrorist organisation. If it existed, Antifa would doubtless be putting its in-house documentation through a shredder. Alas, there is no Antifa, nor any address or bank account associated with that name.
Stand-in for Antifa
Apart from the reckless diversion of anti-terrorist firepower against a fiction (let alone the signal this sends to actual terrorists), all this would be futile in a normal rule-of-law climate. The US has suffered from several plots and mass shootings by left-wing lone wolves and, traditionally, many more from right-wing ones. Very few were sponsored by identifiable groups. Hence the term “antifa”, which is a place holder for something that in Maga minds ought to exist.
Soros’ foundation looks like Trump’s stand-in for Antifa. Though Open Society condemns violence and does not fund pro-violent groups, the tools at Trump’s disposal are considerable.
Last year, the House passed a Bill giving the US Treasury the power to revoke the tax-exempt status of non-profit groups. That would hit Soros’ bottom line.
Trump has also declared the right to brand domestic groups as terrorists. He could throw Soros into Internal Revenue Service and DOJ investigatory hell for years to come.
My hunch is that Trump would stop short of trying to jail Soros. Even by recent ugliness, targeting a nonagenarian Holocaust survivor is probably a bridge too far.
Getting a grand jury to indict would be doable. They only hear one side of the argument. Getting a jury to convict is a much steeper hurdle.
A ham sandwich would probably be exonerated. Judging by the back-of-the-envelope indictments against him, Comey might be too. But Trump has the power to ruin what remains of Soros’ life and the causes he holds dear.
The list of Soros’ awardees is broad. Among the beneficiaries is Hungary’s Orban whose Oxford scholarship was paid by Soros in 1989. Talk about no good deed going unpunished.
Another kind of beneficiary is Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, who ran Soros’ hedge fund for many years. Soros was the anchor US$2 billion investor in Bessent’s own hedge fund, Key Square Group, in 2015. Bessent’s department would be involved in any financial action against the Open Society Foundations.
There is no doubt that Pam Bondi, the US attorney-general, and Kash Patel, the FBI director, are happy to be Trump’s personal attack dogs. Each has conducted in-house McCarthyite purges of non-loyalists.
Bessent has yet to cross that line. As Soros and other philanthropists seek ways to protect themselves, the question of Bessent’s decency may prove to be critical.
