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Is the Defeat of Hungary’s Orbán the End of International MAGA?
Viktor Orbán and Fidesz' loss in the April 2026 elections serves as a warning to right-wing autocrats that corruption, poverty and authoritarianism do not sell.
Apr 29, 2026
The defeat of Viktor Orbán and the Fidesz Party in Hungarian national elections on April 12 signaled a turning point for right-wing movements across Europe and in the United States. Orbán, having used quasilegal to tools control the electorate, enrich himself and his cronies, and align the country with Russian interests, was soundly beaten, with a centrist, Peter Magyar and the Tisza Party, winning a supermajority in parliament. Magyar promised to abandon the corrupt rule of Fidesz, its close ties to Russia, and its connections with the international MAGA movement. How could Orbán have failed so spectacularly; after all, US Presidnet Donald Trump put his influence on the line to support him by ordering Vice President JD Vance to appear at a Budapest rally on the eve of the elections?
Over 16 years Orbán had established stricter and stricter control over Hungarian society. He came to power on a wave of voter resentment over the 2008 global financial crisis that forced many people into poverty, and because of the belief that Hungary had lost sovereignty to European Union interests in Brussels. New laws enabled Fidesz to manipulate voting. Police actions and surveillance helped to intimidate alternative voices. Endemic corruption gave financial advantages to Fidesz politicians and their allies. The party used government-owned media to identify immigrants, minorities, and other enemies as threats to the traditional family as the foundation of society. Yet, in the end, Orbán’s turn away from Europe, toward Moscow, and against Ukraine in the war with Russia, along with a foundering economy, proved too much for Hungarian voters.
There had been almost universal support for democratic reforms among Hungarian voters after the collapse of the USSR. Throughout the 1990s the expat financier, George Soros, invested heavily in Eastern Europe to establish educational institutions and programs dedicated to human rights, in particular in Hungary. Eventually, however, Fidesz politicians came to accuse Soros of being part of a “globalist” conspiracy to control the country. The conflict between the vision of Orbán for authoritarian rule and that of people like Soros for an “Open Society” gained traction in the run-up to the April 2024 election. The catastrophic loss of Fidesz in the elections has now triggered concern among right-wing politicians across Europe—and in the MAGA movement in the US—that voters have finally rejected their heavy-handed, authoritarian rule.
From Open to Closed Society
A symbol of the bankruptcy of socialism was the East German Trabant, an automobile with a smoke-belching two-cycle engine made available for the working class consumer. Before the Wall fell in November 1989 in Berlin, pro-democracy movements had opened the borders in Hungary and Poland. East Germans, as yet unable to travel directly to the West, drove some 20,000 Trabants into Budapest, abandoned them with their keys in the ignition for anyone to claim, and took trains to Vienna and thence to the Federal Republic of Germany to reunite with friends and family.
In general, the Orbán-Putin-MAGA countries underperform the world in life expectancy and infant mortality.
In sharp contrast with the clunky, polluting Trabants were nascent institutions of democracy, some of which were supported by George Soros. Soros (b. 1930) has become the bugaboo of right-wing ideologues and antisemites who are convinced he represents an international conspiracy of bankers, a conspiracy theory that Orbán brought to the fore in Hungarian elections. In the mid-1940s the Soros family used forged documents to escape the mass deportation of Jews from Hungary to the Auschwitz death camps as organized by Adolf Eichmann. Soros moved to London to pursue university, began work in finance, and developed highly successful hedge funds. Soros’ philanthropic efforts date to 1979 and the award of scholarships to Black South Africans under apartheid.
Soros established the Central European University (CEU) in 1991 to rebuild “open societies” in East Central Europe after the collapse of the USSR. He created the CEU “to foster critical thinking—which at that time was an alien concept” in socialist universities. He endowed CEU with $250 million in 2001. Soros’s vision was of a university dedicated to examining the contemporary challenges of "open societies” and human rights.
Soros also funded the Open Society Archive (OSA) from 1995. At the end of the Cold War, OSA secured the collections of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from its Munich offices. The archive, totaling over 3 kilometers of materials on the history of the Eastern Bloc, documented the murderous Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 during the so-called Prague Spring. The materials reveal the essence of the closed socialist system; the failure of central economic planning; the endemic corruption of party officials; and the damage to culture, literature, and the arts of ideological interference. Communist officials felt so threatened by RFE/RL that they bombed the Munich offices in 1981, injuring seven people and causing $1 million in damage. I was honored to receive one of the early OSA grants in 1996 to work in the Budapest archive—and consider the socialist detritus of Trabants.
Having quickly established an international reputation for academic excellence, CEU ran afoul of the illiberal Orbán regime because of its pro-democracy stances and pedagogy; CEU had opened leading women’s and environmental studies departments, for example. In the 2010s the government forced CEU into exile in Vienna as part of its effort to close civil society groups. Fidesz instead promoted culture wars through Christian, nationalist, anti-immigrant, and homophobic programs and propaganda that served as a template for similar political impulses as far away as the United States.
The attack on the CEU further resembled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing battle against scientific freedoms. After a brief period of reform and internationalization, the Kremlin centralized control over university curricula and personnel appointments. It has arrested researchers for public lectures under charges of treason for revealing “state secrets.” It opened offices of state security police, the FSB, on every campus. It is no coincidence that, in the battle against critical thinking, Trump and his allies are carrying out an assault on academic integrity by withholding funds, threatening academic programs that celebrate diversity, and insisting on teaching “patriot,” ahistorical education.
But incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar intends to reverse this heavy-handed interference. After the elections, he promised to end state funding of the Matthias Corvinus Collegium, a university breeding ground for elites aligned with the Fidesz political party whose faculty felt pressure to write promotional articles for Fidesz. He is seeking to rekindle Hungarian academic excellence to spur economic growth.
Orbán’s Illiberalism and Economic Stagnation
With a population of 9.5 million people, Hungary’s economy ranks much higher in global output than in population. The country’s high economic performance was noteworthy even under socialism with the NEM (New Economic Policy, 1968-1991), a turn to market mechanisms and away from central planning that led the country to outperform other economies in the socialist bloc, something called “Goulash Socialism.” But like Donald Trump who falsely claims that his policies enable the US economy to thrive in the growing, self-imposed isolation of tariffs and other questionable macroeconomic policies, Orbán came to power in part by condemning the global economic system that led to the 2008 financial crisis. He promised to overcome Hungary’s embarrassment at having to accept a €20 billion European bailout to avoid bankruptcy. He promised to break with the “liberal paradigm" and build a "sovereign" economy free from the EU dictates. These were strange claims given the fact that Hungary relies significantly on EU market access, EU investments and imported energy, and EU institutional rules that it uses as leverage for its economy.
After a brief recovery in the 2010s, owing precisely to the influx of foreign capital and EU funds, Hungary’s economy faltered. It stagnated because of underinvestment in education and innovation that led to stultified growth, and because of the sloughing off of benefits and privileges to party loyalists. The shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an energy crisis, and growing conflict with the EU that led to the suspension of EU funds “were not the source of these problems but rather sharply exposed pre-existing structural weaknesses.” The practice of funneling contracts to friends, family, and chosen oligarchs, which resembles the selling of crypto and stock deals out of public view and the awarding of government contracts that are so prominent in the US under Trump and Russia under Putin, contributed to public disgust.
Growing poverty, the collapse of healthcare, and universal corruption damned Orbán to lose. In general, the Orbán-Putin-MAGA countries underperform the world in life expectancy and infant mortality. In Hungary severe doctor shortages due to emigration, longer patient waiting times, and shortages of such basic supplies as toilet paper turned off voters. To balance budgets on the poor, the country’s healthcare spending fell to among the lowest in the European Union. (In the US, ahead of the midterm elections in November, a healthcare crisis has unfolded. It is caused by MAGA policies that have sent costs skyrocketing, cut insurance programs, removed safety nets, forced people into bankruptcy, yet have seen industry profits increase to $54 billion in 2025. This has triggered backlash among voters.)
Identifying Internal Enemies
On top of rigging the electoral system, media, and economy to hold onto power, Orbán advanced a pro-family, anti-immigrant, and antisemitic message to cement his grip. Since 2013 Fidesz has used Soros’ face on billboards and in other campaign materials to suggest that the Jewish financier had a secret agenda to destroy Hungary. In 2026, the billboards carried the same messages, but with photographs of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who is also of Jewish descent. Other rightists employ the same tactics. Putin accuses Jews of being godless people who try to tear apart the Russian Orthodox Church, and he frequently distorts the history of the Holocaust to lay some of the blame for Nazism on Jews. Trump has accused Jews of being disloyal; he calls bankers “Shylock” to tie them to the stereotype of the evil Jewish moneylender, Shylock, in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice; he consorts with racist, antisemitic extremists and claims that some Nazis are “good people”; and he calls Soros and other Jews “globalists,” a code word for claiming that they conspire to control the world’s economies. Trump seeks nothing less than the prosecution of Soros in US courts.
Like other illiberal societies, Fidesz has promulgated anti-LGBTQ legislation. In its rejection of human rights agendas advanced by Soros and others, the party claims to defend the family from decadence and immorality. In the early 2020s, Fidesz banned same-sex couples from adopting children, ended legal recognition of transgender people, and prohibited speech about homosexuality. The European Commission recently rejected these laws as contrary to the values set forth in the Treaty on European Union and the principle of non-discrimination in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Not to be deterred, in March 2025 the government banned a Budapest Pride event and authorized city authorities to use facial recognition software to identify—and fine —participants. The parade drew 100,000 marchers—a harbinger of the election failure. All of this was in the name of championing the values of Christian civilization which were threatened by what Orbán called “gender madness.”
In all these ways Fidesz set an example for the feckless Trump who appoints MAGA loyalists as the heads of regulatory agencies and seeks the consolidation of major communications companies under sycophantic billionaire businessmen.
Putin had shown Orbán the way. In June 2013 the Russian parliament passed a law to punish LGBT individuals with fines and imprisonment for even speaking about “non-traditional” relationships. The law encouraged police to ignore rising violence against the community. In the US, conservative states have long agitated against equal rights for the LGBTQ community through laws limiting bathroom access, denying driver’s licenses, making hormonal therapy illegal, and other discriminatory practices. Under Trump the federal government has ratcheted anti-trans propaganda, misinformation, and discrimination; blocked gender-affirming care, stifled research; and banned trans people from serving in the military.
In its programs and initiatives, the Open Society organizations stand in solidarity with gays, lesbians, Roma, and other people. For George Soros this was a personal quest. “In every country I visited,” Soros recalled, “I saw the same pattern. Roma communities were denied access to decent housing, employment, healthcare, and education.” Pointedly, in 2023, Alex Soros, who succeeded his father as chair of Open Society, announced the launch of the Roma Foundation for Europe, supporting a new generation of Roma leaders working across the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Spain, Italy, and Germany.
Control of Media to Disseminate Fear
If Soros and Fidesz had cooperated in the 1990s in the effort to rebuild Hungary from socialist stagnation, the relationship grew hostile after Orbán lost in 2002 elections. In the 2010s, after Orbán returned to office, Fidesz, with a two-thirds majority of seats in parliament, amended Hungary’s constitution to ensure future victories. In 2013 it passed rules to limit pre-election political advertising to broadcasters controlled by Orbán’s allies. Ownership of the media shifted to these oligarchs through inexpensive loans from state-owned banks that enabled them to buy up media outlets. The state, the biggest advertiser in Hungary’s media market, pulled advertising from outlets deemed hostile to Fidesz, starving them; for example, Klubradio was forced off air in 2021. State-controlled media spread absurd messages of fear that included the claim that Ukraine was ready to invade Hungary. They depicted Magyar “as a reckless enemy of peace, bent on dragging Hungary into the war in neighboring Ukraine.”
In all these ways Fidesz set an example for the feckless Trump who appoints MAGA loyalists as the heads of regulatory agencies and seeks the consolidation of major communications companies under sycophantic billionaire businessmen. He rails against fake news. Showing allegiance to Orbán, Putin, and other authoritarians, he attempted to shutter the Voice of America and RFE/RL, perhaps because they provide an alternative to Kremlin, Chinese, and other misinformation efforts. He tasked conspiracy theorist Kari Lake to cut programs; fire employees; and stop broadcast, investigation, and reporting activities. Overnight, such shows as “Current Time” that provided information beyond Kremlin control were cancelled and journalists were fired. In this way, Trump cemented Kremlin dominance of messages at home: Putin’s government controls six national TV networks, two national radio networks, two news agencies, two national newspapers, and over 60% of the remaining press.
In the end Orbán was unable to fix the recent election. A huge turnout of 74% of voters who were angry about failed economic policies and overly friendly ties with Russia—the nation that had murdered hundreds of Hungarians in the 1956 invasion—ensured a landside loss. When he was interviewed after his victory on the state-controlled M1 television network by a still-hostile newscaster, Magyar reprimanded her for spreading “lies” about his family and compared the channel’s coverage to propaganda from North Korea and Nazi-era Germany.
International MAGA Networks from Washington to Budapest
Illiberalism has had significant international ramifications, notably in bringing together such unlikely conservative bedfellows as Orbán, Putin, and Trump into the effort to foment rightist victories across the globe. The cast of international right-wing characters who endorsed Orbán did not help him to victory. The last minute, highly publicized visit by US Vice President JD Vance, and increasingly vocal endorsements from Trump on Truth Social, backfired with an electorate fed up with Orbán. He had become synonymous with democratic backsliding: a gangster-driven authoritarianism that weakened judicial independence, degraded media pluralism, entrenched patronage networks, and sought out repeated battles with Brussels, not only as a Hungarian leader but as “a transnational symbol for the authoritarian and nationalist right.” JD Vance parroted this litany of complaints about “bureaucrats in Brussels” trying to “destroy the economy of Hungary.”
Russian election interference, consisting of disinformation campaigns and direct financial support, has been far more dangerous, intrusive, and long-term. Between 2014 and 2022 Moscow spent over $300 million financing foreign political parties. As of 2023, more than 900 political parties and organizations in 19 European countries were promoting pro-Russian narratives, for example, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party whose members sabotaged arms deliveries to Ukraine and seek to block military assistance to Kyiv. In addition, Putin hosts far-right gatherings and uses covert tools, threats, and violence to achieve foreign policy ends.
Against this history of the rise and fall of Hungarian socialism; the rise and fall of Hungarian illiberalism, Russian interference, and invasion; and the overlap of rightist groups and interests from Europe to the US, Orbán’s electoral failure may represent a turning point.
In exchange for Russian support, Orbán stalled Ukrainian EU accession negotiations. He blocked a €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine over the latter’s refusal to allow Russian oil to transit to Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline (recently opened). Russian front organizations produced memes, graphics, and videos for Hungarian social media that were designed to incite hostility between Hungary and Ukraine. A Kremlin-linked bot network, “Matryoshka,” shared fake posts on X that portrayed Orbán as “a peacemaker” and a victim of warlike Ukrainians. Even worse, reminiscent of Trump’s clumsy efforts to coerce Ukraine into providing “dirt” on his 2020 election opponent, Joe Biden, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó established a hotline with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to give Moscow strategic information on critical EU issues. Szijjártó acted on behalf of the Kremlin to remove sanctioned oligarchs from EU blacklists. It appears that Orbán put his chips in with Putin and Chinas Xi Jinping because he believes that the European Union was doomed to collapse.
The rightist connections are deeply incestuous. Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar accused Orbán of diverting taxpayer money to the US’ CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference). Indeed, CPAC has “deep roots in Hungary,” its website is filled with positive reference to conservative Hungary, and it “stood firmly” with Orbán during the recent election campaign. CPACHungary spreads the same kind of disinformation as CPAC. Attempting to frighten Hungarian voters into thinking seeing the Tisza party as anti-Hungarian, CPACHungary claimed that “Brussels and Kiev may be on the side of Tisza, but Europe and the world stand by Viktor Orbán.” CPACHungary shares with CPAC anti-immigrant and homophobic positions, insisting that the “Hungarian right clearly stood in favor of border protection, family, and peace policies.”
Soros and Democratic Transitions
But Hungarian voters had clearly had enough of the corrupt Fidesz regime. It did not help that Orbán and his circle had made money through corrupt deals, as became shockingly visible after the release of drone footage of Orbán’s estate with manicured gardens, underground garages, and zebras grazing on the grounds at a kind of Hungarian Mar-a-Lago, Hatvanpuszta. Orbán claimed it was his father’s property and had nothing to do with him or Fidesz.
With Orbán defeated, the potential for a return to Hungary’s commitments to the EU has been renewed. These commitments include a Hungarian vote on EU sanctions against Russia. Already a €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine has been approved, while a project between Orbán and Putin to build two Rosatom 1,200 megawatt reactors at Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant on the basis of 40 year loans and technological dependencies—against EU and local interests—has been put on hold.
There has been an alternative vision to Fidesz illiberalism since the 1990s in the Open Society programs. For his efforts to support human rights, establish a new university, build a research archive on the history of socialist repressions, and create “open” institutions, George Soros has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize a number of times, including by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1992 Soros established the International Science Foundation (ISF) with a $100 million grant to support scientists in the former Soviet Union during economic and political crises that saw research programs collapse. Russian security agents tried to stop the ISF in the 1990s, claiming that the West (and a Jewish banker, Soros,) were buying Russian science on the cheap. In 2017, the Soros Open Society Foundations announced that he had transferred $18 billion for the future work of the foundations, bringing the total since 1984 to over $32 billion. These amounts likely make Soros the world’s most generous donor based on the percentage of his net worth donated.
Against this history of the rise and fall of Hungarian socialism; the rise and fall of Hungarian illiberalism, Russian interference, and invasion; and the overlap of rightist groups and interests from Europe to the US, Orbán’s electoral failure may represent a turning point. His loss in the April 2026 elections serves as a warning to right-wing autocrats that corruption, poverty and authoritarianism do not sell. Indeed, the Hungarian results may be a bellwether for the midterm elections in the US.
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'Textbook Authoritarianism': Trump Aims IRS Criminal Division at Left-Leaning Groups, Donors
Reporting by the Wall Street Journal indicates the active "weaponization" of the agency to target the far-right president's political opponents and groups peacefully organizing against his administration's destruction agenda.
Oct 16, 2025
With reporting that President Donald Trump has ordered "sweeping changes" at the Internal Revenue Service, including aiming the agency's criminal-investigative unit at left-leaning nonprofit groups and individual donors, critics are warning of the chilling impacts of the weaponization of state power against the Republican administration's perceived political enemies.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing various people familiar with the shift in policy, reports that a "senior IRS official involved in the effort" has already created "a list of potential targets" for the IRS criminal-investigative division, or IRS-CI, which is also being installed with more loyal "allies" of the president to administer the new direction.
According to the WSJ:
The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Shapley has told people that he is going to replace Guy Ficco, the chief of the investigative unit, who has been at the agency for decades, and that Shapley has been putting together a list of donors and groups he believes IRS investigators should look at. Among those on the list are the billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated groups, according to a senior IRS official and another person briefed on the list. It couldn’t be determined upon what grounds Shapley would seek to begin such an investigation.
The reporting indicates that the decision to mobilize the IRS-CI for such an effort followed frustration experienced by Trump officials who encountered "obstacles in a separate effort to strip tax-exempt status from certain nonprofits," including universities with whom the president has clashed over student protests and other campus policies.
In recent weeks, various high-level officials in the administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Pam Bondi, have been adamant that there's a network of progressive groups and donors that represent a "violent" faction on the left, which must be dismantled and criminally prosecuted. Still, they have offered little to no evidence about who or what this network is or what criminal conduct they are talking about.
Citing people familiar with the new plan at the IRS, the WSJ reports that "some senior IRS criminal tax attorneys are already voicing concern about the methods of investigators while Trump encourages his administration to target donors and nonprofit groups."
They are not the only ones expressing concern.
"This is using the government to destroy dissent," said Denver Lee Riggleman III, an Air Force veteran and former Democratic congressman from Virginia. "This is textbook authoritarianism."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) responded to the new reporting by warning about the "weaponization" of the IRS by Trump against groups and individuals based on political speech, a clear violation of First Amendment protections and an unlawful use of the agency's enforcement powers.
“Donald Trump believes he’s a king, and he’s determined to wield every agency under his control as a weapon to crush political opposition and silence free speech," said Wyden in a Wednesday night statement.
"The Trump administration will try to legitimize this abuse with legal opinions and procedural lingo, but the implicit threat is that if you give to a progressive cause, they’ll deem you a terrorist and ruin your life," he continued. “Senate Republicans have spent years faking outrage over what they called the weaponization of government. They’ve spent more than a decade moaning about the IRS scrutinizing conservative tax-exempt groups—scrutiny the IRS in fact applied to organizations across the political spectrum."
Now, added Wyden, that "weaponization" the GOP warns about, but which never came to pass with an IRS under Democratic control, "is happening right now in front of their eyes, and unless Republicans stand up and speak out, they’ll be complicit in Trump’s assault on our Constitutional right to free speech.”
Ashley Schapitl, a former Democratic Capitol Hill staffer who served at the US Treasury Department and the US Senate Finance Committee, warned that "the total weaponization of tax enforcement leads down a dark road."
"Needless to say, under normal circumstances," said Schapitl, "political appointees are nowhere near and know nothing about IRS criminal investigations."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, said that directing the IRS to target specific people for political purposes is not just a misuse of the agency, but a criminal act under federal statute.
"It's a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House (and all Secretaries but the AG) to order the IRS to target people," said Reichlin-Melnick. "It's not just a crime to DO it, it's a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General."
As Trump openly admitted last month, and the WSJ noted in its reporting, the president has ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to identify and target those groups the White House has claimed are fomenting "political violence," but which critics warn is just a vague use of language so Trump can target organizations that protest or organize against his policies.
“Scott will do that," Trump said during a recent cabinet meeting in the White House, referring to the targeting of groups or donors. "That’s easy for Scott."
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'Zero Self-Awareness': Musk Invokes Soros While 'Literally' Bribing People to Vote in Wisconsin
"The world's richest Nazi, Elon Musk, claims hecklers are paid Soros operatives while he literally bribes people to vote for the fascist, far-right candidates of his choosing."
Mar 31, 2025
World's richest man and top Trump lieutenant Elon Musk was heckled during a rally in Wisconsin on Sunday—and subsequently roasted online once the clip emerged—for saying those who shouted him down were paid operatives of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a boogie man of right-wingers in the U.S. who claim he's the funding source and puppet master of the nation's left opposition.
The moment was especially rich optically as Musk was in Green Bay ahead of Tuesday's pivotal state supreme court elections, in which the Musk-backed Brad Schimel, the Republican choice, faces off against Democratic favorite Susan Crawford. As part of his deep-pocketed efforts to get Schimel elected, Musk gave $1 million checks away at Sunday night's rally to compel them to vote—a tactic critics have denounced as openly corrupt and a blatant form of illegal vote-buying.
"It was inevitable at least a few Soros operatives would be in the audience," Musk said from the stage after heckling came from the audience. Laughing, he added, “Give my regards to George. Say 'Hi' to George for me."
Musk responds to being heckled: it was inevitable at least a few Soros operatives would be in the audience. Give my regards to George. Say hi to George for me. pic.twitter.com/2sGiaDfwTm
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 31, 2025
"Sorry—is Elon Musk attacking George Soros... while he's literally buying an election in Wisconsin... the exact thing that Republicans baselessly claim that George Soros does?" asked Brian Tyler Cohen, a political commentator.
"Showing ZERO self-awareness," added social justice activist and musician Bill Madden, "the world's richest Nazi, Elon Musk, claims hecklers are paid Soros operatives while he literally bribes people to vote for the fascist, far-right candidates of his choosing."
And journalist Krystal Ball quipped: "Pretending like they are paid Soros operatives while you are LITERALLY THERE TO BRIBE PEOPLE TO VOTE!"
As the victor in Tuesday's contest between Schimel and Crawford will determine the ideological bent of the state's highest court, the implications for the outcome could not be higher. With Musk putting himself at the center of the story, including the tens of millions of dollars he has pumped in the race, many now see it as a referendum on Musk as well as President Trump.
"Trump has already put America's richest people in charge of dismantling the U.S. government, exacting supposed savings from programs that mostly benefit those most in need to help extend the tax cuts for the rich that are expiring later this year," wrote Capital Times columnist Dave Zweifel on Monday.
"Thwarting this duo's brazen attempt to use Wisconsin to sanction their methods would go a long way to signal the people's disgust," he said.
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'He Is Who We Think He Is': Elon Musk Appears to Do Fascist Salutes at Post-Inauguration Celebration
"Tomorrow we'll get an explanation that it wasn't a Sieg Heil, he was just pantomiming his 'heart going out to the people.' Legacy media will basically accept this explanation. But you know what you saw and you know what he is," wrote one observer.
Jan 20, 2025
While concluding his remarks at a Washington, D.C. celebration rally following President Donald Trump's inauguration Monday, Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk raised his right arm, with his palm facing down, in a gesture that appeared to resemble a salute associated with Nazi Germany. Musk can be seen making the gesture twice.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a group that combats antisemitism, defines the Nazi salute as consisting of "raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down."
The ADL, however, released a statement on Monday saying that Musk's gesture was not a Nazi salute. "It seems that [Elon Musk] made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute," the group wrote on the platform X, which is owned by Musk. "In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath," they wrote.
The ADL's comment engendered criticism, including from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who wrote in response, "Just to be clear, you are defending a Heil Hitler salute that was performed and repeated for emphasis and clarity."
Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) wrote: "Dang he meant that. Looks as if he's been holding that in for a while and finally was able to let it rip. Like he practiced in the mirror to hit that angle just right."
Others also weighed in on social media. "Did Elon Musk just hit the roman salute at his inauguration speech?” Twitch streamer Hasan Piker posted on X. "Why isn't Elon Musk doing two Nazi salutes at Trump's inauguration a lead story today?" asked political strategist Walid Shahid.
A Bluesky user wrote "Casual Nazi salute on live television."
"He accidentally did a Nazi salute... TWICE," wrote the journalist Mehdi Hasan. "He is who we think he is."
Musk, a GOP megadonor who is slated to play a key role in the Trump administration, has expressed his support for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), a virulently ant-immigration party that has been designated by the German domestic intelligence service as a "suspected extremist" organization. Figures in the party have been accused of using Nazi slogans in speeches and downplaying the Holocaust. Musk held a live event on X with the leader of AfD, Alice Weidel, in early January.
Musk has also repeatedly attacked billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, who has been the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, including by sharing social media posts that falsely claimed Soros "collaborated with the Nazis as a teenager" and describing him as a "psychopath trying to destroy the West," according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz
Michael McCarthy, a PhD student at Indiana University wrote on X: "Tomorrow we'll get an explanation that it wasn't a Sieg Heil, he was just pantomiming his 'heart going out to the people.' Legacy media will basically accept this explanation."
"But you know what you saw," McCarthy added. "And you know what he is."
This article was updated with comments from the ADL and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Progressives in Congress Back Harris as Small Donations Mount
"Kamala Harris will defeat Donald Trump not only because she offers a stronger economic vision, but because she will defend the fundamental rights and freedoms that MAGA Republicans are attacking across the nation."
Jul 22, 2024
Several progressive members of Congress and organizations have endorsed U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris since President Joe Biden on Sunday exited the contest and expressed his support for her becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
Three of the four original "Squad" members—Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) swiftly backed the vice president to face former Republican President Donald Trump and his newly announced running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), in November.
" Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States. I pledge my full support to ensure her victory in November," said Ocasio-Cortez, who had sounded the alarm about some Democrats' calls for Biden to step aside after his disastrous debate.
"Now more than ever, it is crucial that our party and country swiftly unite to defeat Donald Trump and the threat to American democracy," the congresswoman added. "Let's get to work."
Omar shared a pair of photos of her and the vice president on social media and said, "Thrilled to support Kamala Harris as our Democratic nominee and remain committed to working alongside her to defeat Donald Trump in November."
In addition to also posting a photo with Harris, Pressley spoke of her support for the vice president on MSNBC.
Unlike her colleagues, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American in Congress and a leading critic of U.S. complicity in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, called for an open process at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois next month.
As The Detroit News reported:
Tlaib, who never endorsed Biden for president, in her statement said she looks forward to engaging with Harris as she tries to "inspire" the Democratic base in her district, saying she hopes this year's convention "makes the candidates move with their base."
"We are in unprecedented times but the demands of our constituents and people across the country remain the same: They want a president and government that is focused on saving lives, giving people the ability to thrive, and valuing the humanity of one another over bombs," Tlaib said.
"I support a transparent democratic process at an open convention next month, and hope there is a fair vote on the resolution at the DNC that calls for an arms embargo to stop the Israeli government's war crimes."
Rep. Jamaal Bowman's (D-N.Y.) criticism of the Israeli war made him a top target of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which helped Westchester County Executive George Latimer defeat the congressman in a democratic primary last month.
Although he is leaving Washington, D.C. at the end of his term, Bowman still weighed in on Harris, calling her "the most qualified and best choice to lead us forward."
Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who is facing an AIPAC-backed candidate in her primary next month, was the first Squad member to endorse Harris on Sunday, issuing a lengthy statement that said in part: "When we say trust Black women, we mean it. Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party and it is past time for us to lead our country forward. Kamala Harris is more than ready to lead at this moment."
"As we look forward to November, it is clear to me that Vice President Kamala Harris has the vision to carry this legacy forward, defeat Donald Trump, and I unequivocally endorse her for president of the United States," added Bush. Harris would be the first Black and Asian woman on a major U.S. party presidential ticket.
Fellow Squad member Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) also quickly backed Harris, saying: "We have no time to waste—what's at stake for communities like mine isn't abstract. We need to unify and move forward to defeat Trump and fascism in November. That's why I endorse and encourage unity behind Vice President Kamala Harris."
Harris also has support from Reps. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), and Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) political action committee, which is co-chaired by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
The three lawmakers all individually endorsed her and said in a joint statement:
A critical partner in the legislative wins of the last four years, Vice President Harris has demonstrated her ability to deliver on the urgent issues facing working people and marginalized communities. Under her leadership, this country has created a record number of jobs, boosted investments in housing and education, increased access to capital for underserved communities, erased medical debt, and forgiven more student loan debt than any administration in history. She has worked tirelessly to demonstrate her commitment to creating an economy in which every person has the freedom to thrive, traveling the country nonstop to hear directly from impacted communities.
Kamala Harris will defeat Donald Trump not only because she offers a stronger economic vision, but because she will defend the fundamental rights and freedoms that MAGA Republicans are attacking across the nation. As Republicans plot a right-wing takeover of our government with Project 2025, Kamala Harris is standing up for our nation's highest values of freedom, justice, and equality for all.
Other CPC leaders backing Harris include Democratic Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), and Barbara Lee (Calif.).
So far, more than 150 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and over 30 in the Senate—including Democratic Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.)—have come out in support of Harris, according to a Newsweek tracker.
Notably missing from that list is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2000 and was in favor of Biden remaining in the race. After the president's Sunday announcement, Sanders released a short statement thanking him for his service.
Groups that have endorsed Harris include the American Federation of Teachers, End Citizens United, Gen-Z for Change, Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible, MoveOn, People's Action, Reproductive Freedom for All, Service Employees International Union, and United Farm Workers.
As of 9:00 pm ET Sunday, "grassroots supporters have raised $46.7 million through ActBlue following Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign launch," the Democratic fundraising platform said on social media. "This has been the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle. Small-dollar donors are fired up and ready to take on this election."
Some deep-pocketed donors, including hedge fund billionaire George Soros and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, are also behind Harris, according to Forbes. The outlet reported that the Biden-Harris—which amended its Federal Election Commission paperwork on Sunday—has $91 million.
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'Never Trump' Republican Operative Known for Anti-Semitic Attacks on George Soros Now Working to Defeat Sanders in Democratic Primary
"Forty years of dancing with the devil and all of a sudden centrist GOP voters want to switch sides so they can poison the Democratic Party too? Thanks, no thanks."
Feb 12, 2020
A longtime Republican operative known for spreading anti-Semitic tropes about billionaire George Soros in 2018 is behind a dark money effort in Nevada to get right-wing voters to mobilize against Sen. Bernie Sanders in the state's 2020 Democratic presidential primary caucuses on February 22.
Tim Miller, also known for his work on the failed Jeb Bush presidential campaign in 2016, is one of the directors of the new company Center Action Now, which is targeting Sanders in Nevada.
As the Nevada Independent's Megan Messerly reported Wednesday, a Center Action Now memo details plans to mobilize right-wing voters in the state dissatisfied with President Donald Trump to weigh in on the primary to ensure the Democratic Party doesn't stray from the center-right lane.
"The voters we're talking to, they're not happy with the state of the Republican Party," said Miller. "They're not happy with the president. So we're educating them to get involved in the Democratic process so they can back a candidate they can be happy about and that they can support."
Thus far, Center Action Now has only run ads against Sanders and Trump and it's unclear whether the Nevada voter mobilization effort as laid out in the memo will come to fruition. But the group has plans to mobilize against Democratic presidential primary candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders in the state's 2020 caucuses, Miller said.
According to the Nevada Independent:
In addition to Miller, Sarah Longwell, a political strategist and another Never Trump Republican, and John Stubbs, a former official in the George W. Bush administration who founded a Republicans for Hillary Clinton group in 2016, serve on the nonprofit-s board of directors.
Miller declined to provide any details about who is funding the group, its budget, or the size of its staff. As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, the organization is not required to disclose its donors. According to Facebook, the group spent $13,280 on ads the day before and the day of the New Hampshire primary. The Nevada campaign, Miller said, will begin "imminently."
The group's attack ads against Sanders in New Hampshire used Soviet imagery and scare tactics around socialism to discourage voters from voting for the Vermont senator.
In comment to Quartz, Miller said that Center Action Now's efforts to get out the right-wing vote were aimed at providing voters with choice, not to game the system.
"This is not akin to [conservative talk show host] Hugh Hewitt going on TV saying Trump supporters should vote for the weakest Democrats to help him--that's meddling," said Miller. "The people who we are trying to talk to are voters who don't like the president, who want him to be defeated, people who are concerned that both parties have succumbed to the extremes."
Miller's work for Definers Public Affairs came under fire in November 2018 after the New York Times revealed the firm was using anti-Semitic tropes about Soros to discredit left-wing activists on Facebook. The fallout from that scandal resulted in Miller being fired from his job as guest Republican on the Pod Save America podcast and Definers losing its contract with Facebook.
In an example of the revolving door in the political consulting world, Definers former chief executive Matt Rhoades, who also worked on Mitt Romney's failed 2012 presidential campaign, has since founded with former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook the nonprofit Defending Digital Democracy Project at Harvard University.
Both Rhoades and Mook worked with the Iowa Democratic Party on election security in the fall of 2019, months before a malfunctioning phone app threw the Hawkeye State's caucuses into chaos.
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Protocols of the Elders of the Republican Party
Lunatic conspiracy theories are the heart and soul of today’s GOP.
Dec 04, 2019
How do the horrific events of Charlottesville, the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, and a similar hate crime in California directly relate to the eye-rolling pronouncements by Devin Nunes, Rudy Giuliani, and other Republicans in defense of President Donald Trump?
The answer can be found in the Republican id, where a toxic brew of conspiracy theory, urban legend, photoshopping, and comment-board trollery self-organize into an alternate reality. While this alt-reality has only burst into wider public view during the Trump presidency, like the monstrous space alien exploding out of the bodies of the infected scientists in John Carpenter's The Thing, I was in a position to observe its germination, more than two decades ago.
It is therefore refreshing that finally, a former national security council employee, Fiona Hill, has given widely publicized testimony to the House intelligence committee decisively exposing as a lie one of the linchpins of the conspiratorial Republican world view--the assertion that it was Ukraine, not Russia, behind disruption of the 2016 election. Previously, the media had sporadically raised the conspiracy theory, disjointedly explained it, and weakly dismissed it, allowing it to hang like an incubus in the air for the credulous to half believe.
What received less attention from the big media, however, was Hill's elaboration of one specific component of the GOP's imagined conspiracy. She said that lurking behind their Ukraine fantasy was the claim that billionaire George Soros was financing the supposed disruption operation, and that he manipulated not only politicians in Kiev but crucial components of the U.S. government.
Indeed, Republican performance artist Joe diGenova has alleged that Soros steered the State Department and FBI effectively to politically dominate Ukraine, and he echoed Trump fixer Rudy Giuliani's false assertions that Soros was involved in faking corruption evidence against Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
Hill likened these defamations to an infamous fabrication by the Tsarist secret police, more than a century old, called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In her words, that forgery was "the longest-running anti-Semitic trope that we have in history, and a trope against Mr. Soros was also created for political purposes, and this is the new Protocols... "
How did we sink to the point where an approved talking point of one of our two major parties rehashes a long-refuted anti-Semitic calumny whose toxic effects helped bring on the nightmare of 20th century fascism and the most destructive war in history?
The major media are finally getting around to debunking the Ukraine conspiracy in detail, now that congressional testimony has given them permission, but it is useful to stand back and look at the bigger picture, of which Ukraine is only a part. What is the larger narrative?
We are expected to believe that Hillary Clinton, in concert with Ukraine, arranged for her private emails to be stolen, along with those of the Democratic National Committee, in order to sabotage her own campaign for the presidency. Why on earth? Doing so helped hand the presidency to Donald Trump, but it served the larger goal of falsely framing innocent Russia for collaborating with the Trump campaign, when the real culprit was Ukraine.
Oh, and George Soros was in there somewhere pulling wires and arranging things, because, hey, Jewish financiers are clever and you can't expect much from blockheads like the Ukrainians.
That, in capsule, is what Republicans earnestly endeavor to have you believe, although it sounds as if some of Catch-22's more phantasmagoric passages got mixed up with Mein Kampf. Do Republicans believe it themselves?
Undoubtedly there are many, mostly elected officials, gamely going through the motions of believing it because the party demands it. Senator Kennedy (R-LA) has been waffling of late, his position probably dependent on how well his pollsters tell him the tale sells down in the bayous.
But there is also the vast Republican base of true believers of the type once described by political philosopher Eric Hoffer. Back in the 1990s, I knew one of them on Capitol Hill. I'll call her Margaret, because that's her name. It was through her tutelage that I became aware of the ubiquitous and omnipotent Mr. Soros. Margaret, being a movement activist, worked enthusiastically for an unpleasantly sanctimonious Midwestern Republican congressman (who later resigned after an affair with a staffer became public). He was at the legislative forefront of the 1990s epidemic of draconian sentences for illegal drug use.
She informed me that the worst thing about drug legalization (at the time an all but moribund cause), was that it was manipulated by Soros, who had given donations to drug legalization advocacy groups. He was poised, she theorized, to buy up brand names and cigarette production capacity in order to corner a future U.S. market for legal marijuana. Thus would the Hungarian-born billionaire condemn a whole generation of American youth to crazed depravity.
The tentacles of Soros even extended, according to her catechism, to sporadic efforts to reintroduce the growing of hemp as a cash crop for struggling Midwestern farmers because of its industrial uses. Hemp does not have the pharmacological qualities of cannabis, but through some metaphysical process that escaped my powers of insight, Margaret had deduced that Farmer Brown's growing hemp for rope manufacturers would lead to an outbreak of reefer madness.
This was around the time things were heating up in the Balkans. Some thought that the United States had an obligation to intervene militarily, while others believed, per Bismarck, that blood vendettas there were the norm and the area was not worth the life of a single soldier. But one Republican foreign policy expert on the Hill informed me that we must under no circumstances intervene because something-something George Soros. Yes, his fine hand was stirring the simmering Balkan cauldron.
It is probable that Soros's name was never mentioned once on the House or Senate floor, either in connection with the Balkan debate or national drug policy. In those days, legislators mostly kept up the pretense of sanity.
But beneath the surface, as in the world beneath the Planet of the Apes, there was an undercurrent of strange mutant ideas, confined at that moment to certain staff members (aside from a few certifiable wackos like Dan Burton). You could sometimes hear them after hours at the various watering holes frequented by Republican staff, or in the basement grill room of the Capitol Hill Club. In the ensuing couple of decades, these ideas took over the politics of Washington and the country.
In a sense, Charlottesville and the synagogue shootings were a predictable outcome, not just of Trump's fueling of stochastic terrorism through his calculatedly hatemongering speeches, but of a whole generation of conspiratorial thinking whereby George Soros and Jewish banking plots seamlessly merge into the New World Order, Black Helicopters, a FEMA concentration camp in Beach Grove, Indiana, Muslim scares, cyclical moral panics about gays and feminists, wars on Christmas, and they're going to outlaw barbecued ribs.
The incoherent discourses of Devin Nunes and Rudy Giuliani didn't come out of nowhere, nor are they purely a sign of obedience to Trump. They had been germinating for ages in what was once called, without irony, the Party of Ideas.
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Birds of a Feather
Hostility towards immigrants is not the only tie that binds Messrs. Orban and Trump. Dislike of Mr. Soros is the other.
Nov 23, 2018
The long arm of coincidence.
-- Haddon Chambers, Captain Swift
It's just another one of those amazing coincidences and a harbinger of things to come in the United States. It was the news that Democracy's greatest champion in Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump wannabe, was presiding over a parliament last June that was drafting anti-immigrant legislation.
The parliament's efforts were preceded by the Hungarian parliamentary election, that took place on April 8, 2018. During that election, Mr. Orban ignored the problems in Hungary, such as corruption scandals, low wages, or the depressing state of health care. His campaign was focused exclusively on keeping immigrants out of Hungary. The choice, he said when campaigning, was (a) a national government over which he would preside, or (b) a government formed by George Soros.
The legislation that was drafted, following the election, was aimed at immigrants seeking asylum, and criminalized the activities of anyone giving them assistance. It was called the "Stop Soros Bill."
Mr. Soros is the American-Hungarian billionaire who has had a large presence in Hungary. The government was, however, accusing him of encouraging refugees to go to Hungary. According to Mr. Orban's acolytes, NGOs financed by Mr. Soros operate as "a network to facilitate illegal migration." In mid-June the Hungarian parliament passed the Stop Soros legislation.
The bill creates a crime called "promoting and supporting illegal migration." It bans organization and individuals from giving any help to undocumented immigrants. It is drafted in such a way that, as simple an act as providing food or shelter to an immigrant, would be a violation of the law.
Following the passage of the bill, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee issued a press release that said in part: "The primary aim of this legislation is to intimidate by means of criminal law those who fully, legitimately, assist asylum seekers or foreigners. It threatens to jail those who support vulnerable people."
Passage of the "Stop Soros" law was not Mr. Orban's only anti-Soros triumph. On October 25, 2018, the Central European University (CEU) which is considered the best English language university in Budapest and, indeed, in the heart of Europe, will be moving most of its operations to Vienna, Austria.
CEU was founded more than 30 years ago by George Soros. As its website explains, it is a graduate level "crossroads" university where "faculty and students come to engage in interdisciplinary education. . . . With approximately 1,400 students. . . from more than 130 countries, CEU is one of the most densely international universities in the world. . . ." CEU has been in Budapest since its creation in 1991. Beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year, incoming students for the masters and doctoral programs will study at a new campus in Vienna. As the trustees of CEU explained, CEU is moving because of the Hungarian "government's crackdown on academic freedom including a government ban on gender studies programs, the forced suspension of research related to migration, and punitive tax measures." It is a great victory for Viktor Orban. And it is a wonderful model for the Trump who not only shares Mr. Orban's hatred of immigrants, but his dislike for George Soros.
Trump's fear of immigrants is well known and is attested to by the deployment of troops to the border which, the Trump says, is designed to keep out the caravan that is filled with terrorists and other unsavory sorts intent on causing havoc in the United States as soon as they get in.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on November 20, the Trump has been almost as successful in keeping out immigrants as Mr. Orban. According to the report, at the border crossing in Yuma, Arizona, until very recently, 30 or more families were permitted entry every day. In the last two weeks, at most one family a day has been permitted to enter. As one immigration counsellor said: "It really seems like they are trying to discourage people from crossing to seek asylum legally . . . . It's been bad for a couple weeks."
As noted above, hostility towards immigrants is not the only tie that binds Messrs. Orban and Trump. Dislike of Mr. Soros is the other.
During the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, one of the Republican senators conducting the hearings was confronted by two women in the Senate Office Building as he was entering the elevator. They were expressing their dismay over the prospect of Kavanaugh's confirmation. Commenting on the confrontation, the Trump tweeted: "The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don't fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love."
On another occasion, in response to a question posed by a reporter who asked whether the Trump thought Soros was funding the migrant caravan whose advent the Trump warned of before the election, the Trump said: "I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of people say yes."
Mr. Orban may wonder why the Trump has never expressed the sort of love for him that he has for Messrs. Kim or Putin. I want to reassure him that it is not for want of affection. Indeed, it is nothing more than an oversight and on behalf of the United States I want to offer my apologies to Mr. Orban for the Trump's rudeness. He is not its only victim.
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Targeted by Smears, Color of Change Rips Facebook for Boosting 'Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories of White Nationalist Trump Base'
The civil rights group condemned the social media giant's reported efforts to deploy "anti-Semitism as a crowbar to kneecap a black-led organization working to hold them accountable."
Nov 14, 2018
After the New York Times published a bombshell report detailing Facebook's efforts to smear its critics by deploying anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that are commonly spread right-wing extremists, Color of Change--the online racial justice organization that Facebook attempted to discredit as a "puppet" of billionaire philanthropist George Soros--issued a scathing statement on Thursday denouncing the tech giant for "using anti-Semitism as a crowbar to kneecap a black-led organization working to hold them accountable."
"By suggesting to reporters that Color Of Change is acting as the puppet of Mr. Soros merely because he is one of our many funders, they have given oxygen to the worst anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the white nationalist Trump base."
--Rashad Robinson, Color of Change"Facebook is violating its most fundamental mission of building human connection, as well as the trust placed in it by billions of people, by advancing extremist far-right conspiracy theories that are aimed at denigrating Jews and belittling people of color," said Color of Change president Rashad Robinson. "It is reprehensible, it is dangerous, and they should be ashamed."
While Robinson notes that Color of Change has worked with Facebook on a variety of civil rights issues in the past, the group has also been sharply critical of the social media behemoth, accusing it of placing "profit over the safety and privacy of millions of Americans, especially black people, Muslims, and other vulnerable groups."
According to the Times, Facebook used the Republican public relations firm Definers Public Affairs to "explore the financial connections between Mr. Soros' family or philanthropies" and Color of Change in an attempt to discredit the group's legitimate criticism of the social media giant as Soros-fueled propaganda.
"Facebook's response to our campaign, which challenged them to improve their platform and create safe conditions for black people and other marginalized groups, was to fan the flames of anti-Semitism," Robinson said.
"By suggesting to reporters that Color of Change is acting as the puppet of Mr. Soros merely because he is one of our many funders," Robinson continued, "they have given oxygen to the worst anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the white nationalist Trump base. Those theories aim to not only dehumanize Jews, but also seek to deny legitimacy to progressive social movements led by people of color, by suggesting we have no agenda of our own."
Hours after the meticulously detailed Times report was published, Facebook cut ties with Definers Public Affairs--but Color of Change said the company must go much further.
In addition to acknowledging and apologizing for its egregious behavior, Color of Change demanded that Facebook:
- Immediately fire [vice president for corporate public policy] Joel Kaplan for his role in this scheme and the PR firms Facebook worked with to delegitimize Color Of Change and our partners.
- Release all of the opposition research documents they compiled on Color Of Change and our allies so that we can understand the full extent Facebook went to undermine civil rights work.
- Release the data on voter suppression attempts on the platform. In an October 15th statement, Facebook announced changes about voter suppression and voter manipulation. Given the revelations about how the company handled 2016 election interference, a full and public disclosure is required. If the company does not comply, House Democrats should subpoena the records.
- Commit to a public release of the civil rights audit including meaningful steps to address the harms raised.
"Facebook has become part of the same ecosystem that fed the fever dreams of Cesar Sayoc, accused of targeting Soros and others with pipe bombs, and Robert Bowers, the man who massacred 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue," Robinson concluded. "The recent New York Times story shows that while we were operating in good faith trying to protect our communities, they were stooping lower than we'd ever imagined... Facebook now must make amends."
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Open Society Denounces Facebook's Dirty Tricks as 'Dangerous' Threat to Democracy
"At bottom, this is not about George Soros or the foundations. Your methods threaten the very values underpinning our democracy."
Nov 14, 2018
The president of Open Society Foundations, the family of charitable groups run by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, has sent a sharply-worded letter to Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg to demand answers about the "frankly astonishing" revelations contained in a New York Times report published late Wednesday which says the top executive was personally behind a secret effort to smear Soros and his foundations--in some cases by pushing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories used by right-wingers--as a way to deflect from a public relations crisis and ongoing criticisms of the social media giant's business model.
"Sorry Facebook but it's not enough to fire your agent and then to deny knowledge of their smear campaign. You need to publicly disclose all their distortions executed on your payroll." --Patrick Gaspard, Open Society Foundations
In his letter, Open Society president Patrick Gaspard says he "was shocked to learn from the New York Times that you and your colleagues at Facebook hired a Republican opposition research firm to stir up animus toward George Soros. As you know, there is a concerted right-wing effort the world over to demonize Mr. Soros and his foundations, which I lead--an effort which has contributed to death threats and the delivery of a pipe bomb to Mr. Soros' home."
Soros, as Gaspard notes, has long been a target of right-wing scorn and attacks based on his Jewish identity. "The notion," continued Gaspard, "that your company, at your direction, actively engaged in the same behavior to try to discredit people exercising their First Amendment rights to protest Facebook's role in disseminating vile propaganda is frankly astonishing to me."
In fact, the lengthy and detailed reporting by the Times contained so many troubling revelations, informed readers of the piece had troubling keeping up with it all. "This is.... extremely bad," responded Zach Carter, an investigative journalist with the Huffington Post, after reading the story. He later added:
In its reporting, the Times detailed how Sandberg led an effort to insulate Facebook from ongoing criticism that included the hiring of Republican-affiliated public relations firms who would push out news stories to discredit those critics and disparage its perceived enemies and competitors.
One such PR firm, called Definers Public Affairs, was specifically used to target Facebook's "bigger opponents, such as Mr. Soros, a longtime boogeyman to mainstream conservatives and the target of intense anti-Semitic smears on the far right. A research document circulated by Definers to reporters this summer, just a month after [congressional testimony by Zuckerberg], cast Mr. Soros as the unacknowledged force behind what appeared to be a broad anti-Facebook movement."
According to the Times, Open Society and Soros were a "natural target" for Facebook:
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in January, he had attacked Facebook and Google, describing them as a monopolist "menace" with "neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions."
Definers pressed reporters to explore the financial connections between Mr. Soros's family or philanthropies and groups that were members of Freedom from Facebook, such as Color of Change, an online racial justice organization, as well as a progressive group founded by Mr. Soros's son.
Rashad Robinson, the executive director of Color of Change, which has been openly critical of Facebook's handling of hate speech on its platform, told the Guardian in an interview that the antisemitic smear campaign orchestrated by the PR firm hired by Facebook was both "outrageous and concerning."
"This narrative has really dangerous antisemitic undertones about Jewish people controlling the world," Robinson added. "It's also deeply anti-black - the idea that our strategies, our ideas, our vision are somehow built off some puppet master ... That Facebook would employ a rightwing firm to say that is deeply troubling."
In statement following the Times story, Facebook said the reporting contained a "number of inaccuracies" but also announced it was parting ways with Definers. Critics, however, including Gaspard, continued to take issue with the media giant's handling of the scandal:
The full text of Gaspard's letter, which was cc'd to Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives and board members, follows:
Dear Ms. Sandberg:
I was shocked to learn from the New York Times that you and your colleagues at Facebook hired a Republican opposition research firm to stir up animus toward George Soros. As you know, there is a concerted right-wing effort the world over to demonize Mr. Soros and his foundations, which I lead--an effort which has contributed to death threats and the delivery of a pipe bomb to Mr. Soros' home. You are no doubt also aware that much of this hateful and blatantly false and Anti-Semitic information is spread via Facebook.
The notion that your company, at your direction, actively engaged in the same behavior to try to discredit people exercising their First Amendment rights to protest Facebook's role in disseminating vile propaganda is frankly astonishing to me.
It's been disappointing to see how you have failed to monitor hate and misinformation on Facebook's platform. To now learn that you are active in promoting these distortions is beyond the pale.
These efforts appear to have been part of a deliberate strategy to distract from the very real accountability problems your company continues to grapple with. This is reprehensible, and an offense to the core values Open Society seeks to advance. But at bottom, this is not about George Soros or the foundations. Your methods threaten the very values underpinning our democracy.
I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter with you in person, and to hear what steps you might take to help remediate the damage done by this deeply misguided--and dangerous--effort carried out at Facebook's behest.
Sincerely,
Patrick Gaspard
President | Open Society Foundations
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