Sen. Ted Cruz claims billionaire George Soros “bought” protesters at last weekend’s No Kings rallies. Public records and official statements tell a more nuanced story.
Protests, Philanthropy, and Politics
Last Saturday, anti‑No Kings rallies erupted across the country, drawing attention, and accusations. Sen. Ted Cruz, among others, claimed these protests were “bought and paid for,” alleging that billionaire philanthropist George Soros directly financed individual protesters.
The truth, as revealed by public records, is far more nuanced. While Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) has long provided multi‑million‑dollar grants to Indivisible, a civic‑engagement nonprofit involved in organizing these events, there is no evidence that any individual protester was paid to attend.
✅ What the records show
- Organizational funding: InfluenceWatch and other watchdogs report that Indivisible received more than $8 million from OSF and affiliated foundations between 2017 and 2023. Key grants include $875,000 in 2021, $1.135 million in 2022, and $3 million in 2023 from the Open Society Action Fund. (InfluenceWatch)
- Purpose of the grants: According to OSF, grants are for “social‑welfare activities” such as training, coaching, strategic guidance, and broad civic engagement. OSF explicitly states, “We do not pay people to protest or directly train or coordinate protestors.” (OSF)
- Local reimbursements only: Indivisible acknowledges reimbursing local groups for event-related costs such as supplies and refreshments, but denies paying individual participants. (Indivisible)
🚫 What the records don’t show
- No payments to individual protesters: There is no publicly disclosed evidence that Soros or OSF paid attendees to appear at last weekend’s rallies. Fact-checkers repeatedly note that claims about Soros “hiring protesters” lack substantiation. (PolitiFact)
- No direct connection to the No Kings event: While Indivisible helped organize protests, grants were for general capacity-building, not specific payments to fund attendance at particular events.
🗣 Voices from the organizations
Indivisible:
“Indivisible groups are organising regular people to show up at their local town halls … They’re teachers, nurses, small business owners, and retirees, who care about their communities. We do not pay individuals to protest.”
Open Society Foundations:
“Every year the Open Society Foundations give grants to groups and individuals that work on issues we care about … The vast majority of our grants are awarded to organizations … not to pay individual protesters. We do not pay people to protest or directly train or coordinate protestors.”
🎯 Putting it in perspective
- Fact: OSF funding to Indivisible is documented, substantial, and intended to support civic‑engagement and social-welfare activities.
- Fiction: There is no evidence that Soros paid individual protesters to attend the No Kings rallies.
- Nuance matters: Conflating organizational support with “hired” protesters inflates a narrative that is not backed by public records.
The takeaway: funding can enable organizations to better organize events, train volunteers, and provide logistical support, but it is not the same as paying people to attend. Political rhetoric that blurs this line can mislead the public.
Bottom line: While the Soros-Indivisible funding connection is real, the claim that the protests were “bought and paid for” oversteps the evidence. Publicly available records and official statements make clear that these protests were organized by volunteers, with organizational grants supporting infrastructure and training, not individual paychecks.
