Do we like them?

Do we like George Soros?

Our score: 8 out of 10. A long record of giving to rights, democracy and climate causes, with one old insider trading conviction and no harmful words of his own turning up.

George Soros is a Hungarian-born financier who made his fortune in hedge funds. He then poured it into the Open Society Foundations, which now work in more than 100 countries on human rights, justice and democracy. In 2017 he moved about US$18 billion into the foundation, taking his lifetime giving to roughly US$32 billion.

The real stain is on the court record. A French court convicted him of insider trading over a 1988 share purchase, and the conviction stood through appeals. In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights rejected his challenge, with reports putting the vote at 4-3. He argued that the French law was unclear. That is one old business matter, not a pattern.

On the harm test, nothing harmful in his own words or acts turned up. The giving runs the other way: his foundation backs LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, and he has put money into climate work. Conservative critics call his grants political influence, while supporters call them ordinary philanthropy. I couldn't open some of the key pages for this card, so treat this as a lean on the evidence found, not an audit.

In August 2025 Trump said George and Alex Soros should face racketeering charges over alleged support for violent protests. The foundation rejected the claim and said it opposes all forms of violence. Reports said the Justice Department had told prosecutors to look at the foundation, which has denied funding terrorism. Nothing in what I found shows charges laid.