Why George Soros Could Have Major Clout in Either a Trump or Clinton Presidency

Liberal billionaire George Soros could have significant sway in the White House if either of the two major party front-runners, Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton, is the next commander in chief.

The philanthropist and investor donated $8 million to the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action in January. Soros, like Trump, has also been a contributor to the Clinton Foundation. Meanwhile, Soros has had close business associations with Trump that included a $160 million loan for a Trump development.

(Thomas Peter/AP)

Matthew Vadum, the senior vice president of the nonprofit watchdog group Capital Research Center, has written and researched extensively on the Soros financial networks.

"If Hillary wins, there is no question she will be Soros's puppet," Vadum told TheBlaze. "They go way, way back and they're ideological soulmates. If Trump wins, it's not so clear what his working relationship with Soros will be. Trump has been cozy with Soros in the world of high finance, but that was before the candidate's recent conversion to conservatism."

In 2004, the year that Soros spent $20 million out of pocket to try to defeat President George W. Bush’s re-election effort, he also made the $160 million loan to Trump to build Trump Tower Chicago. The $160 million Soros investment came in the form of a so-called mezzanine loan, described by the Chicago Tribune as a second mortgage that charges a higher interest rate than the original construction loan.

The website, Conservative Review, noted the loan, while also pointing out that the two billionaires spent Christmas Eve 2009 together, among other celebrities, according to the New York Post,

Trump and Soros were also co-defendents in a lawsuit. In 2008, the developer Leslie Dick Worldwide filed a RICO lawsuit against 17 parties, including Trump and Soros over the 2003 sale of a General Motors building in Manhattan. The suit was fled in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Soros’ ties with Clinton are even deeper.

Before his $8 million donation this year, Soros helped raise $24 million for the pro-Clinton super PAC last year from other donors. Soros’s Open Society Institute gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. Separately, the Soros Foundation contributed between $500,000 and $1 million to the Clinton Foundation.

The Washington Post reported that while she served as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton acted when Soros demanded “urgent attention from the highest levels of the U.S. government” to Albania.

Neither the Clinton nor Trump campaign responded to TheBlaze for comment on this story. The Open Society Institute also did not immediately respond for comment.