Alex Soros posted a photo on Instagram this week showing himself and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani locked in what can only be described as an adoring mutual gaze. Two men. One of them a son of billionaire George Soros. The other a self-described democratic socialist who told NBC's Meet the Press, "I don't think that we should have billionaires, frankly."
I guess he meant only billionaires who don't donate to his causes.
The photo of the two men hanging out together went viral for exactly the reason you'd expect. Mamdani built his entire political career on the premise that billionaires are a moral failing — that no one should accumulate that kind of wealth while working families struggle to pay rent in the city with the highest cost of living in America. He ran on it. He won on it. He beat former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary on it. And now here he is, grinning at the manager of a $25 billion fund, who also sits on the board of a billion dollar plus hedge fund, like a kid who just met his favorite baseball player.
The photo would be embarrassing enough on its own. But the financial paper trail turns embarrassing into damning. George Soros's Open Society Foundation funneled $37 million to left-wing organizations that played pivotal roles in getting Mamdani elected. The Working Families Party alone received $23.7 million from Soros since 2016 through its nonprofit fundraising arm. Another $3.515 million went to Make The Road Action. Community Voices Heard got $2.635 million. MoveOn pocketed $2.3 million. Jewish Voice for Peace Action received $650,000.
That's not a donor. That's an investor.
Patrick Gaspard, former president of the Open Society Foundations, reportedly helped guide Mamdani's campaign strategy before settling into a senior fellow position at the Center for American Progress. So the billionaire's foundation funded the ground game, the billionaire's former executive helped shape the strategy, and now the billionaire's son gets the victory photo.
Meanwhile, a pro-Mamdani super PAC called New Yorkers for Lower Costs took a $250,000 check from Elizabeth Simons — a philanthropist whose late father, hedge fund manager Jamie Simons, built a $31.4 billion fortune running Renaissance Technologies. Billionaire money bankrolling the anti-billionaire candidate's super PAC. Fox News reached out to both the campaign and the PAC for comment. Neither responded.
Cuomo, who knows a thing or two about political hypocrisy, posted on X what might be the most efficient takedown of the cycle: "Congrats to you for completing the holy trinity of hypocrisy: Eat the rich. Cash their PAC checks."
Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa put it more bluntly. Mamdani "doesn't want to get rid of billionaires," Sliwa said. "He only wants to destroy the ones who don't bankroll his radical agenda."
The pattern is not unique to Mamdani. The modern progressive left has never had a problem with concentrated wealth. They have a problem with concentrated wealth that doesn't flow in their direction. The billionaires who fund conservative causes are existential threats to democracy. The billionaires who fund progressive infrastructure are philanthropists. Same zeros on the check. Different recipient.
New York City has 123 billionaires — more than any other city on Earth. Mamdani proposed raising property taxes on what he called "richer and whiter neighborhoods" to fund his agenda. He campaigned on the idea that the billionaire class had rigged the system against ordinary New Yorkers. Voters believed him.
George Soros spent $37 million making sure they did.
