‘Soros of the right’ Elon Musk eyes progressive prosecutors as next target
Donald Trump adviser Brooke Rollins had a question for the crowd celebrating his election at his Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month. “Where is the George Soros of the right?” she called from the stage, referring to the billionaire investor and prolific liberal donor.
To loud cheers, a younger billionaire in the audience threw his right hand into the air: Elon Musk.
Musk is being likened to Soros in Republican circles — and embracing the comparison — after he plowed more than $118 million into his pro-Trump super PAC to support the former president’s campaign. He is also planning to use Soros’s past donations as a road map to guide his own political targets.
The tech mogul told advisers shortly before the election that America PAC should challenge “Soros DAs,” referring to a cohort of progressive district attorneys across the country who received support from Soros and affiliated organizations, according to two people familiar with Musk’s plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Musk believes that prosecutors linked to Soros are too lenient on crime and directly responsible for theft and other quality-of-life issues in cities across the country, the people said. Many DAs linked to the liberal donor campaigned on platforms of criminal justice reform and were elected in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
“The progressive district attorneys are a problem, and they are easy pickings,” one of the people said.
Soros, a Hungarian-born hedge-fund founder, has long been a target of right-wing conspiracy theories about his involvement in liberal politics around the world.
Over the past decade, Soros and affiliated groups have backed prosecutors across the country who campaigned on progressive ideals, like reducing mass incarceration and improving equity in the criminal justice system. His donations have ranged from thousands to millions of dollars, in cities large and small. His intervention in local district attorney races, which generally attract little outside notice, has added contention to some campaigns.
Musk is currently directing the bulk of his attention on the nongovernment “efficiency” commission he will co-chair for Trump, the people familiar with his discussions said, and his plans for America PAC’s future are still preliminary. But the private comments fit with public statements by Musk indicating his intention to intervene in DA races around the United States, and his concerns about Soros’s support for local prosecutors.
The Tesla CEO said in a live stream on Election Day that America PAC would “aim to weigh in heavily” on future races for the House, Senate and local district attorney offices.
In a post last week on his social network X, Musk amplified a list of six Democratic DAs described as “Soros-backed,” who have received funding from Soros or affiliated groups and are nearing the end of their terms.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for America PAC declined to comment.
Musk took an interest in Soros and his involvement in local political races even before he became a top Republican donor: “Soros figured out a clever arbitrage opportunity,” Musk wrote in a post on his social network X early last year. Campaign dollars go further in local races for district attorneys and judges, he wrote, “so it is far easier to sway the outcome.”
On an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast later in 2023, Musk said that Soros was “doing things that erode the fabric of civilization — you know, getting DAs elected who refuse to prosecute crime.” A spokesperson for Soros declined to comment.
Musk last week suggested in another post on X that he was open to learning more about Soros’s political projects. “I would be curious to meet and understand your goals better,” Musk wrote in a reply to the liberal donor’s son Alex, who chairs his father’s nonprofit Open Society Foundations.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, which tracks spending by Soros and affiliated organizations, estimated that as of January 2024 Soros had spent at least $50 million in direct and indirect spending over the past decade to support candidates in DA races.
The liberal billionaire’s donations can be difficult to trace because they are sometimes funneled through a tangle of national and state-level PACs, allied organizations, nonprofits and other entities.
In some Republican circles the terms “Soros-backed,” “Soros-funded” or “Soros DA” are used as epithets for liberal prosecutors who favor reducing mass incarceration or improving equity in the criminal justice system. They are sometimes applied to candidates who only received minimal, indirect funding from the deep-pocketed investor.
Recently, a series of progressive prosecutors — including some who received support from Soros or associated groups — have suffered electoral backlash after criticsblamed them for increases in homelessness, drug use and theft.
The traditionally liberal counties that are home to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, all recently recalled or replaced progressive prosecutors as frustrations over quality of life issues boiled over.
Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said Musk’s greater resources and celebrity could make him even more impactful than the older billionaire. Soros, who is 94, is more than 40 years older than Musk, 53, and worth $6.5 billion to the tech mogul’s $348 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk “has more capacity and ability to transmit information and influence people than maybe anyone else,” Johnson said.
Several district attorneys who have been linked to Soros are up for reelection this year, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who secured Trump’s convictionfor falsifying business records in May. While Bragg has not directly received support from Soros, he previously received funding from a group backing liberal candidates that received money from the billionaire.
Maud Maron, a former attorney for the nonprofit Legal Aid Society, is running as a Republican against Bragg, she told the New York Post this week. A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who this week dropped a lawsuit against Musk and America PAC over a $1 million voter giveaway during the presidential campaign, also reaches the end of his term this year. He has not yet declared whether he intends to stand for reelection.
A spokesperson for Krasner declined to comment. Krasner received support from a Soros-affiliated PAC in his last run for district attorney.
Ramin Fatehi, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Norfolk, received more than $220,000 in support from Soros-affiliated organizations, according to public filings.
“In a large and not wealthy city, the money was helpful in getting my message to the people,” said Fatehi, who faces reelection in 2025. “Elon can put in whatever kind of money he wants here … but voters are smart and vote for the message.”
No opponents to Krasner or Fatehi have yet declared an intention to run for their offices.
Musk intervened in a district attorney race in Texas earlier this year without success. A September Wall Street Journal report linked the Tesla CEO to an effort to unseat José Garza, a Soros-linked district attorney in Travis County, home to Austin, where Musk spends much of his time. Garza handily won, receiving 70 percent of the vote in a county that traditionally favors the Democratic Party.
Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of nonprofit organization Prosecutors Alliance Action, said she was encouraged by Garza’s win despite Musk’s involvement. Still, she said, America PAC’s involvement in DA races should be unwelcome.
“It will be much harder to win races where there are millions put into spread misinformation, and use fearmongering to try to get voters to move away from candidates who are more committed to their local communities than Musk would ever would be,” DeBerry said.
America PAC primarily focused on turning out low-propensity voters for Trump during the November campaign but also spent millions on competitive congressional races around the country, potentially providing a preview of how Musk could loom large in local contests.
In Michigan’s 7th District, Musk’s America PAC spent about $1 million to support Republican Tom Barrett, who defeated his Democratic challenger and flipped the seat.
Barrett’s campaign spokesman, Jason Roe, said that while Musk’s support was a fraction of the total spent campaigning for the seat, he contributed an “eye popping” amount in a tight race ultimately won by about 17,000 votes.
“Soros can overwhelm a race, so now it’s nice to have Musk,” Roe said. “When he [Musk] does stuff like this, it gets attention.”
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