Lara Trump, right, accused George Soros of instigating campus protests over the war in Gaza. Photo by Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh May 5, 2024

Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, alleged that Jewish billionaire George Soros, often the target of antisemitic tropes, was instigating pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. 

“We know that George Soros has funded a lot of this, stirring all this up,” Lara Trump said last week on her podcast, The Right View. “We know he loves to put his money into upsetting people and causing situations like this.”

Casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes is a common antisemitic trope, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Several top Republicans — including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — echoed the same sentiment, speculating that the 93-year-old Holocaust survivor was behind some of the chaotic unrest at universities like Columbia in New York. “I think the FBI needs to be all over this,” Johnson said in an interview with Newsmax TV. “They need to look at the root causes and find out if some of this was funded by — I don’t know — George Soros or overseas entities.” 

The Republicans didn’t provide any evidence that Soros, who was in the past blamed for national protests and is often touted as a boogeyman by the far right, is funding the unrest, which has veered into violence, harassment against Jewish students and ongoing clashes with the police. Democrats pushed back against the Republican theory. 

Politico noted on Sunday that some of the groups who have participated in the demonstrations have, at one point in time, received financial support from Soros and other Biden donors through indirect donations. Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, both left-wing groups that oppose Israeli policies towards Palestinians and have recently mobilized activists and students to protest the war in Gaza, receive some funding from the Tides Foundation, which has, in the past, received funding from Soros. Robert Wood Johnson, former Ambassador to the U.K. under former President Donald Trump and a longtime GOP donor, is also listed as a major funder of the Tides Foundation. 

Trump invoked the Soros-as-puppeteer conspiracy in dozens of fundraising emails since launching his 2024 presidential campaign, accusing Soros of aiming to “single-handedly buy” President Joe Biden’s reelection.

Biden condemned the violence at the campuses in a speech on Thursday. “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos,” Biden said. “Dissent must never lead to disorder.”

The first “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia University was formed as the school’s president, Nemat Shafik, testified on Apr. 17 about campus antisemitism before a Republican-led congressional committee. It intensified following the administration’s authorization of a police crackdown on students who had pitched tents on Columbia’s lawn and the suspension of three students for their involvement in the protests. More than 2,000 people have since been arrested in campus protests across the country, mostly for trespassing charges.

Editor’s note: This post was updated after Politico corrected the original story to state that IfNotNow is supporting, not organizing protests at Columbia University.

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