Billionaire left-wing philanthropist George Soros‘ organizations received a staggering $260 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID is now accused of funneling funds to entities connected with Soros’ Open Society Foundations, which have been known to fund radical movements and regime changes across the globe.
The funding has been traced back through several documents and reports.
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the State Department and USAID in 2018, seeking records on funding to Soros’ organizations in Albania.
In 2017, Judicial Watch sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and six senators, calling on the secretary to investigate the relationship between USAID and the Soros Foundations. The senators wrote:
“How the State Department and USAID are using U.S. tax dollars to support left-of-center political groups who seek to impose left-leaning policies in countries such as Macedonia and Albania must be thoroughly investigated.”
That same year, the Heritage Foundation claimed that USAID partnered with Soros-funded groups to promote anti-American policies.
Further allegations suggest that USAID funding under the Biden administration continued to support causes aligned with Soros, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion programs abroad
Mike Gonzalez, the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, wrote:
“There is credible evidence that during the Obama years, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was used to promote policies abroad that remain controversial within American society and serve no clear national security interests. To achieve these ends, USAID has teamed up in some countries with groups funded by financier George Soros, the world’s 22nd wealthiest man, according to Forbes.”
Following complaints from several foreign officials, a group of six senators asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to investigate these reports.
Tillerson was urged to conduct such a probe, and congressional committees were called upon to hold hearings.
In 2024, USAID and George Soros were alleged to be orchestrators of color revolutions.
For instance, mounting tensions arose as NGOs and ‘independent’ media orchestrated widespread protests in Georgia against proposed legislation requiring them to reveal their international sponsors.
Following investigations, key figures in these demonstrations were found to be politicians and public figures financially supported by entities such as USAID and the George Soros-backed Civil Society Foundation – Georgia.
U.S. government spending records show that the East-West Management Institute, which is in part backed by Soros’ Open Society Foundations, received more than $260 million over the years in grants from USAID to, among other things, promote the rule of law in Georgia, strengthen civil society in Uganda, and advance Serbia’s accession talks with the European Union.
That same nonprofit group came under scrutiny during the Obama administration after Judicial Watch uncovered government records and communications showing that the East-West Management Institute’s “Justice for All” campaign in Albania received $9 million in funding from USAID.
The assistance concerned several GOP Senators, who sent a letter to the newly appointed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017, alleging the campaign funded by the U.S. government helped craft an Albanian judicial reform proposal that may “give the Prime Minister and left-of-center government full control over the judiciary.”
Those same Senators also raised concerns about a similar Soros-backed program in neighboring Macedonia where they said a local affiliate called Foundation Open Society-Macedonia received backing from USAID through the Open Society Foundations and pushed “a progressive agenda.”
Other Soros-backed organizations that received funding from both his Open Society Foundations network and USAID include the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Ukraine and Transparency International.
According to the group’s own records, the Anti-Corruption Action Center began receiving funding from USAID the same year the Maidan Revolution overthrew Ukraine’s elected, Russian-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. The group, by its own admission, was heavily critical of Yanukovych’s government and ministers, which aligned with U.S. State Department policy at the time. During the 2014 Maidan Revolution, then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visited Ukraine and was recorded on a leaked phone call discussing how the United States could influence the formation of a new government in Kyiv.
