IT'S WHY THE TRUMPISTS INVOKE HIS NAME:

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has long been a bogeyman for the far-right, but Donald Trump's indictment has unleashed a fresh torrent of hate that has also entangled US fact-checkers debunking conspiracies about him. [...]

The conspiracy theorists vilifying Soros, a man who survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary, have sought to push the idea of a wealthy Jew working as a puppet master behind the scenes to promote a liberal agenda.

"Conspiracy theories are often built around the idea that there are powerful forces outside of our control acting on behalf of the global elite to keep the truth from ordinary people," Joshua Tucker, co-director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, told AFP.

"In this case, Soros personifies the evil global elite."

The attacks, observers say, also smack of antisemitism.

The "Republican Party... is once again falling back on their anti-Semitic George Soros conspiracy theories," J Street, a Washington-based Jewish advocacy group, wrote on Twitter.

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