President Donald Trump thinks leftist megadonor George Soros and one of his sons should be charged as criminals.
The president published a post on Truth Social Wednesday morning calling Soros out by name and vowing to stop “lunatics” from destroying the country. He said:
George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America. We’re not going to allow these lunatics to rip apart America any more, never giving it so much as a chance to “BREATHE,” and be FREE. Soros, and his group of psychopaths, have caused great damage to our Country! That includes his Crazy, West Coast friends. Be careful, we’re watching you! Thank you for your attention to this matter!
A spokesperson for Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF) decried Trump’s accusations. “These accusations are outrageous and false. The Open Society Foundations do not support or fund Violent Protests. Our mission is to advance human rights, justice, and democratic principles at home and around the world,” the spokesperson said. OSF posted a similar message on its social media page Tuesday afternoon.
Soros has used his nonprofit as a vehicle for pushing into American society a plethora of changes and causes deemed destructive by any rational and objective use of the word. As outraged as the OSF spokesperson may be, there is ample evidence suggesting Trump is not wrong in saying that Soros has funded violence. His fingerprints have been found on a number of protests-turned-riots around the country over the years, as well as the push for prosecutors and policies that have led to more crime. His indirect investment in crime is quite diverse.
Campus Protests
Soros money helped fuel the anti-Israel campus protests that peaked in 2024. As the New York Post reported, the Soros-funded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) helped pay for identical tent cities and agitators that descended on the campuses of Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Ohio State, and Emory. It continued:
At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are ‘fellows’ of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). USCPR provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based ‘fellows’ in return for spending eight hours a week organizing campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.
The protests became very disruptive, with many devolving into violence. Students were blocked from going to class, and, in more than 100 incidents, violence erupted. Mainstream fact-checkers tried to downplay the Soros link to the campus agitators. However, the best they could do is admit that he tried to obscure his contributions through a network of nonprofits. Politifact put it this way: “The connections between Soros’ money and specific campus protesters had several degrees of separation.” Soros was not the only one supporting these protests and disruptions.
BLM/Defund the Police
Soros also backed elements of the “mostly peaceful” Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots of 2020. More than 600 riots erupted across the country that year, causing at least $1 billion in damages and killing at least 25 people. OSF poured $220 million into “racial justice” causes in the summer of 2020. The organization admitted that some of the groups that received that money were Black Voters Matter, Circle for Justice Innovations, Repairers of the Breach, and the Equal Justice Initiative. All of those groups were involved in the 2020 protests.
By fueling these groups, Soros also supported the Defund the Police movement. That is perhaps one of the most absurd policies to ever have been widely implemented. Defund the Police achieved exactly what sensible people warned it would. It led to a steep rise in crime in every city whose leaders implemented the policy. Some of those cities included Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, and Portland. Minneapolis saw a 46-percent increase in homicides and a 22-percent rise in total crime afterward, according to reports. In Portland, murders more than tripled. Shootings in New York City spiked by 40 percent, and Los Angeles saw a 28-percent increase in murders.
Soft on Crime
Soros also poured piles of cash to get soft-on-crime prosecutors elected. He is said to have funneled between $40 million and $50 million into the campaigns of radical left prosecutors who made their districts more dangerous. Chesa Boudin was one of them. The former San Francisco prosecutor eliminated cash bail and implemented reduced sentences. This triggered such a steep spike in crime that he was recalled by one of the most leftists constituencies in the country.
And Soros backed Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who oversaw a 22-percent increase in crime in 2021. Murders rose by 12 percent in New York. Bragg, it just so happens, also prosecuted Donald Trump in one of many lawfare cases designed to derail his path back to the White House. Other Soros-backed DAs include Los Angeles’ George Gascón, Cook County’s (Chicago) Kim Foxx, and St. Louis’ Kim Gardner. Every region entrusted to these people experienced an increase in crime under their watch.
There are more examples of Soros’ indirect support for chaos, including his involvement in the Ferguson riots, which were a warmup for the 2020 BLM riots. The evidence suggests Soros’ contributions to society have made America more dangerous for the people who make it run, for people who simply want to raise a family and work. Perhaps Elon Musk’s assessment — he said Soros “fundamentally hates humanity” — is accurate.
Family Business
In his social media post, Trump also attacked Soros’ “Radical Left son.” Soros has five children, and at least three of them have ties to their father’s “philanthropy.” But the one Trump is likely referring to in this post is Alex Soros, deputy chair of Open Society Foundations and the heir to his father’s empire of chaos. In 2023, George Soros handed control of his enterprise to Alex. George has said that he and Alex “think alike.” Alex has made clear that he plans to use his family’s fortune to continue the work his father started. He said in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal that he’s “more political”; that can’t be good.
The idea that Soros’ toxic influence is here to stay may bolster Trump’s ire at this dynasty of destruction — so he’s floating allegations of criminal behavior. RICO refers to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law Congress passed in 1970 to fight organized crime. It targets those involved in a racketeering activity, defined as committing at least two crimes covered under the law. Those crimes include arson, bribery, counterfeiting, distribution of a controlled substance, embezzlement, extortion, gambling, homicide, kidnapping, mail fraud, money laundering, robbery, wire fraud, and witness tampering.
Soros is already a convicted felon, as he was found guilty of insider trading by a French court in 2002. But RICO may be hard to pin on him. His activity, as pernicious as it is, does not appear to meet the standard of any of the mentioned crimes.
Trump Not Alone
But that hasn’t stopped some notable figures from agreeing with Trump’s call for criminal prosecution. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) posted on social media, “There is no doubt that George Soros has funded violent insurrection and riots in America. Charge him.”
And Musk, who has also referred to Soros as a “psychopath,” also agrees with Trump. He posted, “High time action was taken against Soros directly.”
Some legislators have suggested that Soros be looked at closely for his role in the Russia Collusion hoax. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently declassified documents with more evidence that the FBI covered up a Hillary Clinton campaign plot to fabricate election-meddling connections between Trump and Russia. The Durham annex includes information on how people at George Soros’ Open Society Foundations were involved in crafting the fabricated narrative that Trump colluded with Russia.
Media figure Benny Johnson asked Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.): “Would you be in favor of an investigation into George Soros, the Open Society Foundation, what they knew in the hacking of our election in 2016?” Burchett’s reply:
100 percent. Let’s not write them a tough letter. Let’s put their a*s on the spot and pull them in. Let’s subpoena them and get them in here. Right now. I’m sick of this stuff in Washington. We drag our feet, we talk tough, and then we continuously let our country down. … Our leadership needs to come forth with that type of message to the American public and let them know this activity is not going to be accepted. They attempted to overthrow our country.
