Billionaire financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros did not mince in his speech Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Soros’s most blistering attack was directed at President Trump. Soros, a major Democratic donor, warned that Trump is a “danger to the world” and said that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un could lead the world into a nuclear war in order to preserve their own power. “Not only the survival of open society, but the survival of our entire civilization is at stake,” Soros said. (Soros’s main charity is called the Open Society Foundations)
If the world is not destroyed, however, Soros sees a bright future for Democrats in the 2018 mid-term elections. “I give President Trump credit for motivating his core supporters brilliantly,” Soros said. “But for every core supporter, he has created a greater number of core opponents who are equally strongly motivated. That’s why I expect a Democratic landslide in 2018.”
The Hungarian-born Jewish octogenarian then turned to social media giants Facebook and Twitter, describing them as a “menace” and warning against the monopolistic power they hold.
“The power to shape people’s attention is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few companies,”
Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman
Author
Nathan Guttman
Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Soros Attacks Trump, Facebook At Davos