The Campbell Soup executive who tweeted a conspiracy theory about George Soros and the migrant caravan is no longer with the company.

Last week, Kelly Johnston, who previously served as the vice president of government affairs, tweeted that Soros’ Open Society Foundations had organized the migrant caravan of thousands of people traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. border.

“See those vans on the right? What you don’t see are the troop carriers and the rail cars taking them north,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “@OpenSociety planned and is executive this, including where they defecate. And they have an army of American immigration layers waiting at the border.”

Open Society, the organization founded by Soros that aims to “build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people,” denied any collaboration with the traveling group.


“Mr. Johnston, neither Mr. Soros nor Open Society is funding this effort. We are surprised to see a @CampbellSoupCo executive spreading false stories,” the organization tweeted Tuesday. “We do support the historic U.S. commitment to welcoming people fleeing oppression and violence in their homelands.”

At the time, Campbell Soup disavowed Johnston’s comments, saying his opinions “are his individual views and do not represent the position of Campbell Soup Company.”

Now, the company says it has decided to “accelerate” Johnston’s pre-planned departure.

“Mr. Johnston and the company discussed in August that he would transition out of his role with his departure scheduled for early November,” a spokesperson told the Daily News Sunday. “In the last few days, the company and Mr. Johnston agreed that under the current circumstances it would be best to accelerate the timing of his departure.”


Johnston’s last day at the company was Thursday.

In a letter to Open Society, Keith McLoughlin, Campbell’s interim president, apologized for Johnston’s tweet.

“Campbell believes in truth and transparency. We expect our leaders to present facts, to deal with objective truths and to exercise impeccable judgment. Unfortunately, our head of Government Affairs, Mr. Kelly Johnson, made comments on his personal Twitter account on Monday evening that speculate about the involvement of the Open Society organization’s role in the migrant caravan traveling through Mexico,” he wrote in the letter, acquired by The News.

“Mr. Johnston’s remarks do not represent the position of Campbell and are inconsistent with how Campbell approaches public debate.”


The migrant caravan has been a controversial topic of debate, as conservatives, including the President, have blamed Democrats for its existence.

“Every time you see a Caravan, or people illegally coming, or attempting to come, into our Country illegally, think of and blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic Immigration Laws!” he tweeted last week. “Remember the Midterms! So unfair to those who come in legally.”

He has also threatened to withhold financial aid from countries whose citizens are attempting to migrate.

On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said DHS has “no intention right now to shoot at people” trying to cross the border.