Billionaire philanthropist and perennial right-wing bogeyman George Soros said on Thursday that Republican President-elect Donald Trump is a “con artist and would-be dictator” who poses a clear threat to U.S. democracy.
TheHill.com reported that Soros penned a scorching op-ed column for Project Syndicate in which he lamented the effect that a Donald Trump presidency will have on freedom and human rights both domestically and abroad.
“Democracy is now in crisis” around the world, wrote Soros. “Even the U.S., the world’s leading democracy, elected a con artist and would-be dictator as its president.”
“I am an 86-year-old Hungarian Jew who became a US citizen after the end of World War II,” he explained. “I learned at an early age how important it is what kind of political regime prevails. The formative experience of my life was the occupation of Hungary by Hitler’s Germany in 1944. I probably would have perished had my father not understood the gravity of the situation. He arranged false identities for his family and for many other Jews; with his help, most survived.”
Soros sees Trump as under-informed, unqualified and truly dangerous.
“Although Trump has toned down his rhetoric since he was elected,” Soros said, “he has changed neither his behavior nor his advisers. His cabinet comprises incompetent extremists and retired generals.”