By Alex Blair

Copyright news

Billionaires George Soros and Reid Hoffman have long been in the sights of the polarising President but now the 78-year-old has made it official he’s taking action.

Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Trump openly named the billionaire philanthropist Soros and the LinkedIn co-founder Hoffman, who are both prolific funders of Democratic causes, as potential targets.

Fresh from directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek charges against former FBI head James Comey, Trump boldly declared the pair were “likely candidates” for investigation.

“I hear names of some pretty rich people that are radical left people,” Trump told reporters. “They’re bad, and we’re going to find out if they are funding these things.”

By “these things”, Trump is referring to several liberal causes funded by the pair over the years, including a private lawsuit Hoffman helped fund against him, and the Soros-backed Black Lives Matter movement.

Soros, whose Open Society Foundations fund liberal causes in over 100 countries including the US, is already facing heightened legal pressure with the Justice Department reportedly eyeing investigations. The foundation, which supports a wide range of causes from racial justice to climate action, said its work is “peaceful and lawful” and condemned “politically motivated attacks on civil society”.

Soros is a frequent target of conservatives in America for his support of left-wing organisations. He has faced ongoing claims that he bankrolls unrest to destabilise governments or societies from extremely powerful individuals in the conservative media space.

Elon Musk has repeatedly disparaged Soros. In May 2023, after likening him to the comic book villain Magneto, Musk claimed the 95-year-old “hates humanity”.

“You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilisation. Soros hates humanity.”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was just as blunt in 2023. “No other person has undermined our democracy more than George Soros. Why is (he) still allowed to maintain his citizenship?” she wrote.

Earlier in 2022, Tucker Carlson framed Soros as a shadowy influence on developed nations, claiming that nonprofit organisations outwardly professing their good intentions can actually be used as vessels for societal damage.

“Unlike the threats from the Soviets and the Ottoman empire, the threat posed by George Soros and his nonprofit organisations is much more subtle and hard to detect.”

Trump has leaned heavily into the narrative in the past, accusing the billionaire “psychopath” of “supporting violent protests”.

“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,” he posted on TruthSocial in August.

“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!”

Open Society Foundations has poured more than $24 billion into projects around the world, including $1.2 billion in 2024 alone.

Its network spans over 100 countries, fuelling conspiracies that it is part of a wider cabal of powerbrokers seeking to control the world.

What is easier to prove is Soros’ interest within the confines of the US two-party system. Despite claiming he agrees with conservatives that government spending has become dangerously excessive, his donation record speaks for itself.

He has been one of the Democratic Party’s most influential donors throughout history, handing a whopping $125 million to a liberal super PAC in 2021.

Soros himself acknowledged his polarising reputation in a 2011 talk at the libertarian Cato Institute.

“Though I am often painted as the representative of the far left — and I am certainly not free of political bias — I recognise that the other side is half right in claiming that the government is wasteful and inefficient and ought to function better,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hoffman, a venture capitalist and longtime Democratic donor who helped bankroll lawsuits, including supporting E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against Trump, has remained quiet since the presidential election.

Hoffman has stated he worries about retaliation from Trump, including IRS audits or denial of government contracts.

At a Sun Valley business conference, Hoffman responded to Peter Thiel’s remark that his lawsuit activity was “turning a clown into a martyr” with a comment that left the room in awe.

“Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr,” he said.

Hoffman clarified that he meant accountability, saying he deplores violence and supports the rule of law.

Trump’s critics say there’s a pattern to the President’s warpath.

The New York Times pinned his administration for extracting millions in settlements from law firms, cutting billions in federal funding from Harvard, firing officials at independent agencies, attempting to oust a Federal Reserve governor on fraud allegations, and threatening broadcasters over programming he opposed.

As such, the US liberal wing believes that business leaders might have once been willing to speak out against presidents, but are now weighing whether it has become too risky to challenge them.