Soros conspiracies first emerged in Russian circles involving "Western anti-Kremlin civil society across the Eastern Bloc from Tbilisi to the Baltic."[6] These conspiracies involved inverting Soros's strengths into weaknesses, a common Russian disinformation technique.[7] Soros, a Holocaust survivor, was accused of being a Nazi.[8] As a supporter of Eastern European democracies, Soros was accused of being behind theEuropean migrant crisis or importing migrants to European countries.[9][10] Soros, an anti-corruption advocate, was accused of globalist conspiracies to overthrow governments.[6]
The Soros conspiracies quickly spread across Europe and the United States, carrying antisemitic and Islamophobic overtones.[11] This included efforts by the Hungarian government, under the current second premiership ofViktor Orbán, as part of an election campaign demonizing Soros. George Soros is cast as part of an internationalcabal ofJews that includes theRothschilds,Freemasons, andIlluminati.[9][10]American conservatives picked up on the thread in the late 2000s, spearheaded byFox News.Bill O'Reilly gave an almost ten-minute monologue on Soros in 2007, calling him an "extremist" and claiming he was "off-the-charts dangerous."[12] Online news organizations, often connected to Russian state media such as theCentre for Research on Globalization, would also publish and help spread conspiracies.[13]
Antisemitic conspiracies about a Jewish world order[14] or Jewish people as tools of the antichrist[15] have existed for centuries.[16] Scholars agree many of these conspiracies were adapted to a modern era whenThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion was published in 1905.[17] The fraudulent text was developed by the Tsarist secret police of Russia and claimed to expose a Jewish plot of world domination.[18]
The antisemitic conspiracies that were modernized through the Protocols were then applied to George Soros's narratives. Soros's philanthropic efforts with the Open Society, founded in 1979, supported democracy movements in Eastern Europe and funded liberal causes in Western democracies.[19] After the fall of Soviet Russia, Soros began funding academic and grant programs. In fact, his activity in Russia became so pronounced that Russians developed a word, 'Sorosovat,' meaning to seek a grant from any quarter. By the mid-1980s, the KGB had sought to discredit George Soros's reputation.[20]
Non-governmental organizations became targets of scrutiny in Russia. In 1995, Nezavisimaya Gazeta published a Federal Counterintelligence Service report which accused the Soros-funded International Science Fund of espionage.[21] In 1999, Dmitry Ryurikov, a foreign affairs advisor toBoris Yeltsin, would give a speech at the Nixon Center in Washington D.C. and blame NGOs, and Soros specifically, for being part of the New World Order trying to destroy Russia.[22] In 2015, Russia passed a series of anti-NGO laws.[23] Many of the George Soros conspiracies and links to antisemitic tropes are tied to the framing of NGOS as being connected to the New World Order, international bankers, or the antichrist.[24]
George Soros' conspiracies emerged fromdisinformation campaigns in the late 1990s.[6] The earliest connection to antisemitic tropes researchers have identified was in 1992 when far-right Hungarian Justice and Life Party leader István Csurka used imagery of Soros as being part of a Jewish global conspiracy.[13]
In the early 1990s, George Soros was accused of being involved in an Anglo-French-Jewish-liberal conspiracy against Croatia and Germany.[25]
As Russian Intelligence began to report that American non-profits, especially George Soros's Open Society, were undermining sovereignty in Russia and Eastern Europe,[26][27] conspiracy theories about George Soros began to spread. AnthropologistIvan Kalmar writes that it is "not clear where the Soros Myth began... A likely candidate for the dubious honour of originating it is theExecutive Intelligence Review, founded by the far-right American commentatorLyndon LaRouche. An article in the November 1, 1996 edition accuses the financier of manipulating the world's finances in partnership with the Rothschilds, who 'launched Soros's career'", citing a piece by writerF. William Engdahl.[28] Similarly, author Michael Wohlraich identifies Engdahl as the first US populariser of Soros conspiracy theories, noting the same text.[29] This has been described by the anti-fascist groupUnicorn Riot as "an example of the antisemitic "rootless cosmopolitan" trope.[30]
George Soros's conspiracies were often found in the pages of Lyndon LaRouche'sExecutive Intelligence Review.[13] In 1996, articles were published about Soros' drug legalization conspiracies while Bill Clinton was negotiating a crime bill.[31] In 1997 LaRouche's publication began to cover Soros as a source of destabilization in Central and South America over critical minerals.[32] Soros was also accused of running secret armies on behalf of the British Government in 1997.[33]
In 1997, during theAsian financial crisis, theprime minister of Malaysia,Mahathir Mohamad, accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for welcomingMyanmar as a member. With a history ofantisemitic remarks, Mahathir made specific reference to Soros's Jewish background ("It is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge"),[28][34] and implied Soros was orchestrating the crash as part of a larger Jewish conspiracy. Nine years later, in 2006, Mahathir met with Soros and afterward stated that he accepted that Soros had not been responsible for the crisis.[35] In 1998'sThe Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered, Soros explained his role in the crisis as follows:
The financial crisis that originated in Thailand in 1997 was particularly unnerving because of its scope and severity ... By the beginning of 1997, it was clear to Soros Fund Management that the discrepancy between the trade account and the capital account was becoming untenable. We sold short the Thai baht and the Malaysian ringgit early in 1997 with maturities ranging from six months to a year. (That is, we entered into contracts to deliver at future dates Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit that we did not currently hold.) Subsequently, Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia accused me of causing the crisis, a wholly unfounded accusation. We were not sellers of the currency during or several months before the crisis; on the contrary, we were buyers when the currencies began to decline—we were purchasing ringgits to realize the profits on our earlier speculation. (Much too soon, as it turned out. We left most of the potential gain on the table because we were afraid that Mahathir would impose capital controls. He did so, but much later.)[36]
In 2002,CovertAction Quarterly, now CovertAction Magazine, which is known for propaganda and disinformation[37] published a George Soros article by Heather Coffin entitled "George Soros: Imperial Wizard."[38] The article blamed George Soros for the 2000 "coup" in Yugoslavia.[39]
Many of the conspiracies tied to George Soros revolved around him organizing theColor Revolutions in countries formerly occupied by theSoviet Union.[40] Serbia's Bulldozer Revolution in 2000, Georgia's Rose Revolution of 2003, and Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004 all helped spark conspiracy theories about George Soros.[41]
In 2004, Richard Carlson, father ofTucker Carlson, former US Ambassador to the Seychelles, and lobbyist for Viktor Orbán[42] wrote about George Soros'sPotemkin Village approach toGeorgia.[43] These pro-democracy movements began withOTPOR in Serbia, and quickly spread across Eastern Europe in countries formerly occupied by Russia.[44]
In 2004, FrontPage Magazine, also known as FrontPageMag.com, edited by David Horowitz and published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC), began publishing stories featuring George Soros conspiracies. This included a two-part series by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Shawn Macomber on Soros, "The Man Who Would Be Kingmaker".[45]
In 2005, George Soros's conspiracies about the Color Revolutions spread in Lithuania. The newspaper Respublika published a series of articles that attacked the non-governmental organizations and civil and human rights groups. Activists in Lithuania were labeled ‘Sorosologists.'[46] In 2006, David Horowitz began to write about connections between George Soros and a "Shadow Party" controlling the Democratic Party in the United States of America.[47][48] By 2008, the Freedom Center was publishing articles byMichelle Malkin connecting criticisms of George Soros to globalist conspiracies.
George Soros's criticisms connected to conspiracies about globalism also spread in the United States of America in 2005. Peter Schweizer, who has written other books of debunked conspiracies,[49] publishedDo as I Say (Not as I Do) in 2005. The book purported to uncover liberal hypocrisy involving George Soros. Schweizer made claims, using publicly available documents as evidence, that Soros used tax shelters to avoid bills and also invested in industries he condemned.[50]
George Soros became a target ofFox News journalists. In April 2007, Bill O'Reilly included a 10-minute segment on "The O'Reilly Factor" about George Soros, whom he described as "off-the-charts dangerous" and "an extremist who wants open borders, a one-world foreign policy, legalized drugs, euthanasia."[51]
During the 2008 presidential campaign in the United States of America, George Soros's conspiracies were tied to disinformation campaigns about theAssociation of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN.[52] These were often tied to labeling Barack Obama as a secret Soros-funded communist who utilized theCloward-Piven Strategy. After Glenn Beck first mentioned this strategy in March 2009, he mentioned it at least 32 times in the next twelve months, connecting George Soros and other elites to Barack Obama.[52]
In 2008,Michelle Malkin would publish an editorial in theNational Review criticizing George Soros. Her article made references to criticism of a "Soros Slush Fund" being the brainchild of Barack Obama.[53]
Glenn Beck was another Fox News host known to spread conspiracy theories about George Soros. In 2009, Beck used a hand-written chart illustrating an alleged left-wing conspiracy linking ACORN, the Service Employees International Union and its president, Andy Stern, to George Soros and the Barack Obama campaign.[52]
In 2008,George Birnbaum andArthur Finkelstein worked on the election campaign ofViktor Orbán; deciding that Orbán needed an enemy, they conducted survey research, after which they settled on George Soros, because, according to Birnbaum, "enough people in Hungary didn't like the idea of this billionaire behind the curtain, almost like… the Wizard of Oz, controlling politics and policy."[54] Orbán's efforts to redefine Soros as a villain took the Soros conspiracies mainstream.[13]
In 2009, the Canadian online news outletCanada Free Press, known for making dubious claims, published an article by Jim O'Niell on George Soros that accused him of illegal market manipulation, being a felony insider trader, and a villain.[55][non-primary source needed]
2017 Hungarian anti-Soros government campaign propaganda2017 Billboards of national consultation on the Soros plan in Zichyújfalu, Fejér County, Hungary
In the 2010s, conspiracy theories about George Soros grew globally.
George Soros conspiracies played a strong role in Hungarian elections in 2010 with the addition of George Birnbaum and Arthur Finkelstein to the campaign.[54] The Presidential campaign ofViktor Orbán and the Hungarian government spent millions of dollars on a poster demonizing Soros.[9][10]
Soros conspiracies became more common in Russian official channels. A study of military and academic journals, from 2008 to 2018, found a notable increase in Soros mentions, taking on a more conspiratorial tone. TheProblem of National Security would mention George Soros 43 times across 23 articles, and the phrase "New World Order" would get mentioned 60 times over 34 articles. TheMilitary-Industrial Courier would mention Soros 41 times over 14 articles from 2009 to 2018 and "New World Over" 92 times across 59 articles.[56] Russian television, which came under greater state control,[57] also began to reinforce a narrative tying George Soros to a New World Order.[58]
Soros Conspiracies began to spread in Polish right-wing media and parties in 2016.[59]
The 3 April 2016 release date of thePanama Papers, also called Offshoregate (Russian:"Офшоргейта") was just beforeVladimir Putin's largest annual press conference, the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) "Truth and Justice" inSt. Petersburg (Russian:Медиа-форум Общероссийского народного фронта (ОНФ) «Правда и справедливость» в Санкт-Петербурге) which was held 4–7 April 2016.[60] During this press conference, Vladimir Putin stated thatJulian Assange'sWikiLeaks told him that George Soros and hisOpen Society Foundations had provided funding for Offshoregate and, on behalf of theKremlin,Dmitry Peskov stated that Offshoregate was intended to denigrate (Russian:"вброс") "Putin and Russia personally".[61][62]
After being ousted from office in the wake of the aforementioned Panama Papers scandal, Icelandic Prime MinisterSigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson accused Soros of having bankrolled a conspiracy to remove him from power.[63][64] It was later noted that Soros himself had also been implicated in the Panama Papers, casting doubt on the prime minister's theory.[65]
In 2018,Black Cube, aprivate intelligence agency of Israeli origins, supportedViktor Orban's virulentlyanti-Semitic re-election campaign, acquiring taped telephone conversations of individuals associated with George Soros, who was actively opposing Orban's re-election.[83][84][85][86] According to Israeli politicianTamar Zandberg, Hungary was "carrying out an antisemitic campaign against Soros" and thatBenjamin Netanyahu, whoseLikud party she said has dangerous ties to "extreme right-wing parties in Europe", openly supported Orban's anti-Semitic re-election campaign.[87] She stated that Black Cube's support for Orban is an "Israeli embarrassment."[87]
In October 2018, Soros was accused of funding theCentral American migrant caravans heading toward the United States.[88][89][90] The theory that Soros was causing Central American migration at the southern US border apparently dates back to late March 2018.[91] The October 2018 strain of the theory has been described to combine antisemitism,anti-immigrant sentiment, and "the specter of powerful foreign agents controlling major world events in pursuit of a hidden agenda", connecting Soros and other wealthy individuals of Jewish faith or background to the October caravan.[91] Then-US PresidentDonald Trump was among those promoting the conspiracy theory.[92] BothCesar Sayoc, the perpetrator of the October 2018 attempted bombings of prominentDemocratic Party officials, and Robert Bowers, the perpetrator of thePittsburgh synagogue shooting, referred to this conspiracy theory on social media before their crimes.[93][94]
In November 2018, Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan denounced Soros while speaking about thepolitical purges in Turkey, saying: "The person who financed terrorists during theGezi incidents is already in prison. And who is behind him? The famous Hungarian Jew Soros. This is a man who assigns people to divide nations and shatter them."[95]
In 2018 Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico would accuse George Soros of destabilizing the country by trying to influence President Andrej Kiska.[96] After the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak Kiska called for reforms in Slovokia. The murder of inv JánKuciak and his fianceee lead to the strongest anti-government protests in Slovakian history.[97] Fico accused Kiska of planning to use the murder to take down his Government in conjunction with George Soros.[98]
In November 2019, attorneyJoseph diGenova, who is known for promoting conspiracy theories about theDepartment of Justice and theFBI,[107] asserted onFox News without evidence that Soros "controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department" and "also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work forNGOs – work with NGOs. That was very evident in Ukraine."[108] Soros'sOpen Society Foundations described diGenova's claims as "beyond rhetorical ugliness, beyond fiction, beyond ludicrous" and requested that Fox News provide an on-air retraction of diGenova's claims and stop providing diGenova with a platform.[109] Although the network never publicly announced it had banned him, diGenova has not appeared on Fox following the incident.[110] In September 2020, diGenova suggested that Fox News is also controlled by Soros.[110]
A study byZignal Labs found that unsubstantiated claims of involvement by Soros were one of three dominant themes inmisinformation and conspiracy theories around the 2020George Floyd protests, alongside claims that Floyd's murder had been faked and claims of involvement byantifa groups.[111] TheAnti-Defamation League estimated that over four days after Floyd's murder, negative Twitter messages about Soros increased from about 20,000 per day to about 500,000 per day.[112]
Qanon, which began on4chan in 2017, made George Soros a central character inCOVID-19 vaccination conspiracies by 2020.[113] The stories connected to George Soros and vaccinations grew in Poland.[114] Qanon connections to George Soros conspiracies were also found in the far-right of Hungary and Romania[115]
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, conspiracies connecting George Soros to biolabs also began to spread.[124] Conspiracies, such as those in Serbia, often stated Soros funded biolabs in Ukaraine.[125] Qanon, and far-right parties in Germany were also essential in spreading Russian disinformation about biolabs that George Soros funded.[124][126] Narratives about George Soros supporting laboratories in Ukraine also spread among American QAnon and far-right politicians.[127]
In 2022 Viktor Orbán gave a speech at theAmerican conservative political conferenceCPAC, in which he said, "Don't be afraid to call your enemies by their name. They will never show mercy. Consider for a moment George Soros. I know George Soros very well. He is my opponent. He believes in none of the things that we do."[54]
WhenDonald Trump was indicted by Manhattan District AttorneyAlvin Bragg in 2023, numerous Republicans claimed that Bragg was "bought and paid for" by Soros. This claim was promoted and spread by Trump himself as well asRon DeSantis, SenatorJ. D. Vance, SenatorRon Johnson, Texas GovernorGreg Abbott, RepresentativeAnna Paulina Luna, and RepresentativePaul Gosar, who called Bragg a "Soros D.A.".[128] The only actual connection is that Soros donated to the progressivecriminal justice reform groupColor of Change, which contributed to Bragg's campaign. Soros was only one of many donors to Color of Change, and he had no contact with Bragg, whom he has never met.[129][130]
Also in 2023,Tesla, Inc./SpaceX CEO and owner of social media platformX (formerly known as Twitter)Elon Musk compared George Soros to JewishMarvel Comics supervillainMagneto and accused him of wanting "to erode the very fabric of civilization" because he "hates humanity". He later alleged that the Soros organization wants "nothing less than the destruction of western civilization" in reply to a X user speculating about a "George Soros-led invasion" of Europe by North African immigrants.[131][132]
In early 2025, massive student protests broke out in Belgrade, Serbia. Social Media and pro-government media were inundated with messaging blaming George Soros andUSAID for the protests. People began to gather after a train station roof collapsed in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia, killing 16 people.[133] Official Government channels blaming George Soros were designed to delegitimize the protests.[134]
George Soros' conspiracies continued to spread in the United States after the re-election of Donald Trump in 2024.[135] After theCharlie Kirk assassination in 2025, the United States Vice President accused George Soros of sponsoring groups behind the killing. Vance said Soros's Open Society Foundations were “setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.”[136] In August 2025, Donald Trump threatened to arrest George SorosRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for funding ‘violent protests.[137] Following Trump's spreading of the antisemitic conspiracy theories, theDepartment of Justice directed staff to begin investigating George Soros.[138]
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