George Soros tears into Trump, says he is a 'wannabe dictator' who will end up destroying himself
Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, in an interview on Monday, May 11, slammed President Donald Trump, calling him a would-be "dictator" with the only thing stopping him is the United States Constitution. Soros also deemed Trump self-destructing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Donald Trump would like to be a dictator," Soros told the British outlet Independent. "But he cannot be one because there is a constitution in the United States that people still respect. And it will prevent him from doing certain things. That does not mean that he will not try, because he is literally fighting for his life." He went on to say, "I will also say that I have put my faith in Trump to destroy himself, and he has exceeded my wildest expectations."
The billionaire, in another part of the interview, called the current pandemic "the crisis" of his lifetime and warned that the outbreak threatened humanity as a whole.
"This is the crisis of my lifetime," he said. "Even before the pandemic hit, I realized that we were in a revolutionary moment where what would be impossible or even inconceivable in normal times had become not only possible, but probably absolutely necessary. And then came Covid-19, which has totally disrupted people’s lives and required very different behavior. It is an unprecedented event that probably has never occurred in this combination. And it really endangers the survival of our civilization," he added.
The philanthropist's remarks come after his organization Open Society Foundations pledged to donate $130 million in an attempt to combat the coronavirus pandemic and "[push] back against government encroachment on political freedoms."
Soros, who has donated most of his fortune to his philanthropic agency OSF, said that the funds will be attributed to the use of a wide range of cases, including support for low-income workers in the United States, countering "disinformation" in Europe, and emergency health care services in parts of Africa. The hedge-fund manager, in April, had also donated $1.1 million to help Budapest prepare for the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Hungarian-American billionaire, while talking to Forbes about the particular donation, had said: "The Covid-19 pandemic knows no boundaries, not between countries, communities, religions or people. Anyone can become infected, but some of us are more vulnerable than others. I was born in Budapest, in the middle of the Great Depression, barely a decade after the Spanish Flu left thousands of dead in Budapest. I lived through World War II, the Arrow Cross rule and the siege in the city. I remember what it is like to live in extreme circumstances."
Soros reportedly spent $28.3 million on the 2020 presidential election in the first quarter of the race, according to Politico. Out of the amount at least $10 million was allocated to Win Justice, an organization that mobilizes people of color and other infrequent voters who could be disenfranchised over whether to hold in-person voting in November this year.
The investor, despite spending millions on the 2020 polls, has not yet expressed his support for the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party former Vice President Joe Biden. Soros had previously backed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), calling her "the most qualified to be president" in October, last year.