A New York judge famously said a good prosecutor could “get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich”. Should Donald Trump be sincere in saying the 95-year-old George Soros is a bad man who belongs in jail, a flimsy indictment can surely be arranged. It is worth pondering that last line. Any doubts that the US Department of Justice is Trump’s private revenge vehicle were dispelled last week with James Comey’s indictment. Prosecution of the former FBI director was publicly demanded by Trump. A season of Washington show trials may now be getting under way.
Soros would be the cherry on Trump’s cake. Unlike others in his sights, such as Mark Milley, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Jack Smith, Joe Biden’s former special counsel, and Letitia James, New York’s attorney-general, Trump has not directly clashed with Soros. The financier’s prosecutorial value is greater than that; he is detested by strongmen everywhere and seen as an Antichrist on the Maga right.
Among Soros’s chief detractors are Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Because right-wing populism is nationalist, it comes in many varieties. Soros is as close as the world’s strongmen get to a cross-border demon. Hundreds of human rights groups, investigative journalists, democracy advocates and other disobedient types have received Soros grants.