George Soros: Trump a ‘would-be dictator’

Billionaire Democratic donor George Soros says President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is a threat to democracy.

“Democracy is now in crisis,” he wrote in a Project Syndicate op-ed Wednesday. “Even the U.S., the world’s leading democracy, elected a con artist and would-be dictator as its president.”

“Although Trump has toned down his rhetoric since he was elected, he has changed neither his behavior nor his advisers,” added Soros, a business magnate and Holocaust survivor. “His Cabinet comprises incompetent extremists and retired generals.”

{mosads}Soros said that while the U.S. would prevent Trump from becoming a true authoritarian, his presidency would nonetheless set back the cause of freedom worldwide.

“I am confident that democracy will prove resilient in the U.S.,” he said. “Its Constitution and institutions, including the fourth-estate, are strong enough to resist the excesses of the executive branch, thus preventing a would-be dictator from becoming an actual one.

“But the U.S. will be preoccupied with internal struggles in the near future, and targeted minorities will suffer. The U.S. will be unable to protect and promote democracy in the rest of the world.”

Soros predicted Trump will appease foreign dictators, sacrificing American principles for his administration’s success.

“On the contrary, Trump will have greater affinity with dictators,” he said. “That will allow some of them to reach an accommodation with the U.S., and others to carry on without interference. Trump will prefer making deals to defending principles. Unfortunately, that will be popular with his core constituency.”

Soros pledged $10 million last month to fight an increase in hate crimes he partially linked to Trump’s “incendiary rhetoric.”

“Certainly it got inflamed as a result of the campaign, and it broke out really afterwards,” he said of a spike in hate crimes.

Soros’s donation will likely benefit civil rights organizations to help them create plans for better preventing violence from hate crimes. The billionaire’s contribution will also partially help fund better tools for tracking hate crimes nationally.