Soros did not endorse DeSantis in 2024 presidential race
CLAIM: George Soros endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. During a keynote address ahead of last week’s Munich Security Conference, Soros said he hopes for a scenario in which DeSantis runs for and wins the Republican nomination so that former President Donald Trump will run as a third-party candidate, paving the way for “a Democratic landslide.” He did not express personal support for DeSantis as a political candidate.
THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a clip of Soros’ remarks, claiming they indicate the billionaire investor and liberal philanthropist is backing DeSantis.
“My hope for 2024 is that Trump and Governor DeSantis of Florida will slug it out for the Republican nomination,” Soros says in the clip. “Trump has turned into a pitiful figure, continually bemoaning his loss in 2020. Big Republican donors are abandoning him in droves. DeSantis is shrewd, ruthless and ambitious. He’s likely to be the Republican candidate.”
An Instagram post that shared the clip asked: “WHY IS SOROS SUPPORTING DESANTIS? Everything that’s coming out is so crazy!” It also included a caption over the video stating that “getting any form of endorsement from George Soros as a potential Republican candidate does not do you any favors” and asks, “could this be the kiss of death for DeSantis?
Similar posts on Twitter claiming Soros had “endorsed” DeSantis, some of which were shared by prominent Republicans, had garnered tens of thousands of likes and shares as of Tuesday.
But the full version of Soros’ address, which he gave on Thursday as part of a speaker series at the Technical University of Munich, makes clear that Soros only hopes DeSantis will be the Republican nominee so that Democrats will have a clear path to victory. At no point does he “endorse” the Florida governor as a presidential candidate.
After predicting that DeSantis will win the nomination in the clip that was shared widely on social media, the full video shows Soros saying: “This could induce Trump, whose narcissism has turned into a disease, to run as a third-party candidate. That would lead to a Democratic landslide and force the Republican Party to reform itself. But perhaps I may be just a little bit biased.”
Laura Silber, a spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations, a grantmaking network of which Soros is founder and chair, told The Associated Press that claims alleging Soros endorsed DeSantis are not true.
“Mr. Soros predicted that Gov. DeSantis ‘is likely to be the Republican candidate’ for president in 2024 — a prediction, not an endorsement,” she wrote in an email.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.