On Friday, President Donald Trump tweeted that people protesting against Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court by confronting members of Congress are “paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad,” adding that they were “paid for by Soros and others.”

This is the first time the president has referenced Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, whose links to progressive causes have made him a far-right boogeyman both in the United States and around the world.

The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2018

Since Kavanaugh’s nomination, a number of prominent figures across the conservative spectrum have referenced Soros’s possible involvement in protest movements. For example, on September 24, a columnist for National Review accused Deborah Ramirez, one of the women who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct or harassment, of receiving funding from Soros via a fellowship in 2003 (which actually went to a different Deborah Ramirez.)

National Review columnist John Fund is offering "sincere apologies" for spreading false information about Kavanaugh accuser Deborah Ramirez.



Last week, a number of false claims spread through RW media about Christine Blasey Ford, misidentifying her w/a women of the same name. pic.twitter.com/UycpC85Muf — andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) September 24, 2018

That same columnist, John Fund, wrote on September 30 that the two women who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in an elevator in the US Capitol and told him about their own experiences of sexual assault were evidence that “ACORN’s tactics … live on in the senator’s elevator confrontation with activists from a Soros-backed group.” ACORN is a community organization accused by many on the right of massive voter fraud. Fund’s evidence was that the women worked with the Center for Popular Democracy, which had received some funding from the Open Society Foundation, a Soros-led effort.

I wrote earlier this year about the space Soros occupies in the hearts and minds of conservatives, in an attempt to explain why Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., retweeted a bizarre claim from comedian Roseanne Barr that Soros was a “nazi who turned in his fellow Jews”: