The Politics of Projection
The new authoritarianism doesn't outlaw democracy. It redefines it as extremism.
If another president had ordered investigations into WinRed, labeled the Heritage Foundation a terrorist group, or sent the IRS after Elon Musk, the political class would lose its mind. Fox News would call it a dictatorship. Republican lawmakers would be demanding impeachment. The word “tyranny” would be trending by lunch.
But when it’s Donald Trump doing it — slowly, deliberately, and with vague national security language — it barely makes the front page.
Welcome to the latest phase of the authoritarian playbook: projection not as hypocrisy, but as policy.
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The Playbook: Accuse First, Investigate Later
Trump and his allies aren’t just targeting political opponents. They’re targeting the infrastructure that enables democracy itself: fundraising platforms, civil society donors, and protest networks. They’re taking tools that protect voting rights and civic participation, and reframing them as weapons of “domestic extremism.”
None of this is new. However, the intensity and scope are accelerating, and the pattern is becoming undeniable.
ActBlue: Smearing the Infrastructure
The campaign against ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s central fundraising platform, began with dark insinuations in the right-wing media sphere. By April 2025, it had escalated into official government action.
On April 24, 2025, Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether ActBlue had facilitated “unlawful straw donor schemes” or accepted foreign contributions during the 2024 election cycle. The memo, which also involved the Treasury Department and IRS, gave investigators 180 days to report back, and directly cited ActBlue by name.
The announcement echoed a prior investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in October 2024, who claimed thousands of “suspicious small-dollar donations” were tied to ActBlue. No credible evidence of foreign financing or straw donors has surfaced publicly since.
By June 2025, House Republicans had subpoenaed ActBlue staffers, further escalating the scrutiny. The narrative was set: ActBlue wasn’t just a fundraising tool. It was allegedly part of a criminal conspiracy to corrupt American elections.
None of the accusations have resulted in formal charges or public evidence of wrongdoing. But that was never the point. The goal was to smear the platform that powers grassroots Democratic campaigns and make its very existence seem suspicious — even dangerous.
See our earlier reporting here:
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How do we know? Despite the memo’s language suggesting a broader probe into “online fundraising platforms,” ActBlue was the only platform named, and the only one actively investigated. To date, there is no public evidence that WinRed, the GOP’s primary fundraising platform, has faced similar scrutiny from the DOJ, IRS, or Treasury. While some House Democrats have called for oversight of WinRed’s practices, these efforts have been limited to document requests, rather than full-scale federal investigations.
This asymmetry speaks volumes. If the concern were truly systemic — about fundraising fraud, straw donors, or foreign interference — both parties’ platforms would be under equal scrutiny. Instead, the machinery of the state was trained on the one platform most critical to Democratic grassroots fundraising. The message was clear: we’re not investigating campaign finance abuse. We’re investigating you.
It’s projection 101: accuse the other side of election interference while building an actual state apparatus to intimidate your opponents’ financial base.
Antifa: Naming the Non‑Entity
On September 22, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order formally designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, a move that followed his repeated statements earlier in the month. The order argued that Antifa is a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that uses violence and coordination to obstruct federal law and overthrow institutions. The text called for investigations into both the operations and funding sources of anyone claiming association with Antifa. The administration claimed standing to act, even though federal law currently has no mechanism for declaring domestic groups as terrorists.
Legal scholars, civil rights groups, and even leading Democrats responded with shock. As Rep. Bennie Thompson put it: “Designating Antifa — which has no defined organizational structure or leadership — as a domestic terrorism organization … serves no purpose other than an excuse … to stifle dissent, investigate anyone … they don’t like, punish their enemies, and potentially label any American they want as a terrorist.”
That statement echoed the broader criticism: Antifa is not a command-and-control group but a loosely affiliated ideology or protest current. There is no central leadership, no bank accounts, and no clear chain of command. Yet the White House order treats it like a national terror network with funders to be traced.
The contrast is stark. While January 6’s planners and right-wing armed groups remain largely untargeted, this order singles out left-leaning protesters as if they posed an existential threat.
Soros & Hoffman: When Donors Become “Terrorist Networks”
Just three days later, on September 25, 2025, President Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM‑7), titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” The memo directed DOJ, Treasury, IRS, and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces to investigate and dismantle networks of political violence. Among its priorities: financial networks and tax-exempt organizations. The text specifically calls for the IRS to ensure that tax‑exempt groups are not “directly or indirectly financing political violence or domestic terrorism.”
In the days that followed, media reports identified George Soros and Reid Hoffman as potential donors being scrutinized under this directive. The memo didn’t explicitly name them, but it authorized precisely the kind of investigations now being publicized. Given their association with pro-democracy causes, voting access groups, and civil society funding, the implication is clear: their money, too, is now in the crosshairs.
This shift is sharp: the regime isn’t just smearing protest or fundraising platforms. It’s weaponizing state power to intimidate individual donors whose money supports civic infrastructure.
Meet the “Enemies”: Who Soros and Hoffman Really Are
To understand why George Soros and Reid Hoffman are being targeted by Trump’s latest domestic terrorism directive, you have to look past the headlines and into the long-running narratives that have made them into symbols of everything the far right wants to discredit.
George Soros is no stranger to being cast as the villain. A Holocaust survivor born in Hungary, Soros built his fortune through finance and then spent decades investing it in what he called “open societies”, including free press, democratic institutions, human rights, and access to justice. Through his Open Society Foundations, he has funded civil rights movements on every continent and supported efforts in the U.S. to protect voting rights, reform the criminal justice system, and expand access to education.
However, to the authoritarian right, Soros became something else entirely: the ultimate puppet master. A shorthand for every conspiracy theory about globalism, immigration, media control, and progressive protest. That caricature was never based on fact. It was a myth designed to fuel outrage and justify repression. Naming Soros as a potential funder of domestic terrorism isn’t about stopping crime. It’s about signaling to the base that their ideological enemy is within reach.
Reid Hoffman, on the other hand, is a newer name to most Americans, and that’s precisely why his targeting matters. Hoffman is best known as the founder of LinkedIn, but he was also a member of the original PayPal Mafia — the elite circle of early tech founders that included Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks. He invested early in Facebook, Airbnb, and hundreds of Silicon Valley ventures. However, unlike many of his PayPal peers, Hoffman used his fortune to support pro-democracy and pro-voting infrastructure, including digital voter outreach, election integrity efforts, and combating online disinformation.
And that’s where the projection kicks in.
Hoffman has become a quiet but powerful force in pushing back against the very tactics the authoritarian right depends on: misinformation, voter suppression, and dark money control. In 2018, he funded a controversial experiment in counter-disinformation tactics — something he apologized for and stopped — but the right seized on it as proof of shadowy manipulation. Ever since, they’ve tried to cast him as a “left-wing version of Thiel,” only more dangerous because he’s backing efforts to make democracy work better.
Note that the tactics used then are similar to the Russian interference with which we are all familiar. Hoffman claims he didn’t know. However, what is notable is that the GOP has never truly criticized or gone after these tactics when they benefited them. When it helps them win, it’s democracy. When it helps you win, it’s terrorism.
He’s not funding violent uprisings. He’s funding ballot access. And that’s what makes him dangerous — not to national security, but to the political project that depends on keeping voters uninformed, unregistered, or disengaged.
So when Soros and Hoffman are lumped into a memo about political terrorism, the message is unmistakable: this isn’t about stopping violence. It’s about stopping funding for the kind of democratic infrastructure that authoritarians fear most.
The Pattern: Projection as a Weapon
None of these moves are random. They follow a clear, escalating pattern:
First, accuse your opponents of exactly what you’re doing: corruption, coercion, dark money, extremism.
Then, weaponize state power — DOJ investigations, IRS audits, public “terror” labels — not to prosecute crimes, but to frighten donors, chill dissent, and delegitimize democratic institutions.
Finally, frame the whole thing as a fight for “law and order,” knowing your base won’t question the premise.
It’s projection, not as irony, but as strategy.
Rules for Thee, Not for Me
It’s the oldest authoritarian trick in the book: apply the law unequally, project your own crimes onto your enemies, and wrap it all in the language of safety and patriotism.
Fundraising? That’s patriotic, unless you’re doing it for the left.
Protest? That’s free speech, unless you’re protesting against the right.
Billionaire influence? That’s just democracy, unless it’s a liberal donor.
This isn’t about stopping violence. It’s about silencing dissent. It’s about criminalizing the mechanisms of democracy. And it’s about protecting power by accusing the powerless of everything the powerful themselves are doing.
The Real Threat
The threat isn’t George Soros, or Reid Hoffman, or ActBlue, or Antifa. The threat is a political movement that views civil rights, protest, and voting as threats to its survival and is willing to use the full weight of the government to suppress them.
It’s not just hypocrisy. It’s projection, and it’s the playbook now.
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Sources:
Trump orders investigation into ActBlue for potential straw donor and foreign contributions
White House Memorandum – April 24, 2025Texas AG Ken Paxton launches state probe into ActBlue donation patterns
Office of the Attorney General – October 2024House Republicans subpoena ActBlue employees amid growing GOP scrutiny
Politico – June 25, 2025Trump signs executive order declaring Antifa a terrorist organization
The Guardian – September 22, 2025Trump signs NSPM-7 targeting domestic political violence and financial backers
White House Memorandum – September 25, 2025Trump DOJ to investigate Soros and Hoffman for ties to political unrest
The Guardian – September 25, 2025Soros Foundation responds: Trump probe is politically motivated
Reuters – September 25, 2025Bennie Thompson slams Trump’s Antifa designation as unconstitutional and authoritarian
House Homeland Committee Press Release – September 23, 2025Reid Hoffman is using his Silicon Valley fortune to fight authoritarianism
Vox – September 5, 2017
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