Catania This was creepy. Last night meeting in the early evening with two comrades and supporters who have long worked to bring ACORN to Sicily, as it does inevitably, the question finally came at me, asking what were Americans doing “about Trump.” It was déjà vu all over again. We had just been talking about that, so they were opening the firehose again!
Then one asked, “What is Open Society doing about all of this?” I wondered why she asked. It seemed they had reached out to OSI for funding for some research and action projects in Catania and were told that OSI had diverted all of its funding to the United States now. That’s probably somewhat of an exaggeration, but going through Romania and Bulgaria recently and previously, I knew that they had been steadily reducing their European footprint. Some years ago, they had closed their office in Bucharest and the team that had focused on funding Roma initiatives. The former head of OSI, ambassador to South Africa, and colleague at the Working Families Party and SEIU, Patrick Gaspard, when he was the president, had done a meeting in Sofia, and had been predictably supportive of ACORN when queried by participants, and jokingly referred to me as the most dangerous organizer he knew, although none of it translated into support for our Roma organizing project partnership. I had answered that I knew they were part of an effort to raise $250 million to fund lawsuits to oppose Trump’s impunity, but I had no knowledge past what had been in the papers.
But, then, darned if I didn’t open my computer upon waking in Catania to find that Trump has ranted wildly about George Soros, his son, and OSI. What the frick! Out of nowhere, he seems to have called for the Justice Department to investigate both of them for racketeering charges under the RICO statues, designed to nab mafia dons. Certainly, Soros spent a pile on the 2024 election, so maybe that triggered this invective, but Trump said they should be hounded “because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America….” I only wish even a part of that was true, at least the protests piece, which needs every bit as much support as these endless lawsuits, which the Supreme Court is batting back at us regularly. As reported in the Washington Post,
Trump did not provide evidence for his claim of supporting violent protests, and it was unclear what sparked his latest broadside against George Soros, whom Republicans have strongly criticized for years. The Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic network founded by George Soros, has long pushed back against Republican attacks over its activities, including the allegation that it pays protesters or directly coordinates with them. The network called the accusations in Trump’s latest post about the Soros family “outrageous and false.”
Trump perceives enemies everywhere and under every rock, but with Soros he is climbing on a long held, far-right, antisemitic bogey man of rare proportions. Years ago, exiting the airport in Budapest to the parking lot, there were huge, distorted posters attacking Soros on fabricated charges against their prodigal son. I can remember all of the attacks on ACORN by the right some years ago and being asked repeatedly whether I knew Soros, which I did not, and whether we were funded by Soros, which we were not, but which would have been wonderful.
As the Post added, “Trump has repeatedly targeted his political enemies with the power of the federal government, saddling them with investigations and other punitive measures.” He went on to say that, “…Soros and his associates have ‘caused great damage’ to the country and added, ‘Be careful, we’re watching you!’” I guess if attacking Soros is good enough for the Hungarian autocrat Orban, it’s now good enough for Trump. Bullies seem to need bogeymen, like vampires need blood. I’ll have to see if Trump and his minions have erected billboards outside of US airports, when I fly home. Yes, it’s been done before, but it seems among conservatives, it’s a dangerous, copycat world now.