President Trump’s recent demand that philanthropists George and Alex Soros be charged with crimes under federal racketeering laws is the latest sign that the Trump regime is weaponizing both government power and antisemitic conspiracy theories against his political opponents.
I’m proud to acknowledge that the organization I lead is among the many public interest groups that have received support from the Soroses’ Open Society Foundations.
Alex Soros has been a personal friend for many years. I take the smears against the Soros family and its philanthropy personally.
I also take seriously the responsibility of public officials, pro-democracy advocates and anti-extremism watchdogs to speak up when politicians and pundits abuse their power or use their platforms to play into the hands of those who promote bigotry.
Trump spewed his baseless threat against the father and son on social media just before Labor Day weekend. His post included no evidence of wrongdoing, just inflammatory rhetoric, a call for criminal prosecution of the Soroses and a warning to their friends and associates that “we’re watching you.”
The muted response to Trump’s latest effort at political intimidation might mean that people aren’t treating the threat as anything more than social-media red meat for his political base.
Or it could be evidence that too many of our leaders and institutions are seeking to avoid confrontation with the vengeful president rather than challenging his attacks on the rule of law.
Either way, I believe silence is the wrong response. It should be clear by now that Trump’s threats should be taken seriously, since neither the law nor democratic norms has stopped him from acting on his personal grievances.
This threat is clearly part of a broader context that makes it notable and dangerous. Trump is brazenly abusing his power to threaten, bully and attack political opponents, independent media, universities, law firms, nonprofit organizations — any institution that might offer resistance to his damaging agenda for the country. He is going after people who worked for him in his first administration but made it onto his enemies list.
Trump has openly admired dictators around the world, and it is clear that he is copying the strategies employed by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban to cement his control over the country’s judiciary, media and educational and cultural institutions.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, whose organization developed the Project 2025 agenda that the Trump regime is ruthlessly implementing, has called Orban’s authoritarian, dissent-quashing rule “the model” for MAGA governance in the U.S.
In that context, it is relevant that Orban has repeatedly wielded antisemitic propaganda against the Soros family for political purposes, including a campaign that forced the Central European University, which George Soros founded, to leave the country where he was born.
The Soroses and their Open Society Foundations have supported pro-democracy organizations for years. That has made the Soros family a target of smears from right-wing politicians and extremist pundits around the world, including here in the U.S.
There is seemingly no claim too absurd. When Trump was indicted in a hush-money case, he and some of his allies laughably blamed George Soros; a jury convicted Trump on 34 counts.
Far-right figures have slotted George Soros into antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish puppet-masters and “white genocide.” MAGA media figures have promoted antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory” conspiracy theories.
In 2023, Elon Musk endorsed as “actual truth” a tweet claiming that Jews promote “hatred of whites.” Last month, Musk endorsed Trump’s call for prosecution, saying on social media, “High time action was taken against Soros directly.”
There is plenty of evidence that the MAGA and America First movements are infected with antisemitism, along with a willingness to tolerate the promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and policies.
In addition, some of Trump’s Christian nationalist allies openly talk about their goal of turning the U.S. into a country in which Jews and other non-Christians would be second-class citizens, unable to worship in public or hold elected office.
These threats to our democratic society, including the abuse of power to undermine any kind of dissent, demand courage, not cowardice. They require confrontation, not complicity.
Svante Myrick is president of People For the American Way.
