No, Trump did not declare George Soros a security threat

A hoax circulating on the Internet claims that President Donald Trump had enough with billionaire liberal George Soros and contacted Russia for a file on him.

"Trump declares globalist Soros as ‘national security threat’ using Obama’s 2014 executive order," stated a Jan. 30 headline on the Conservative Daily Post.

There is no evidence that Trump took any such action against Soros. The same story has been picked up by multiple websites.

The Hungarian-born Soros is a hedge fund manager who has supported liberal causes and backed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Soros has been a major critic of Trump. After Trump won, Soros called him "a con artist and would-be dictator." At a speech in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Soros said, "I consider the Trump administration a danger to the world."

Soros has been the target of many online hoaxes, including that his foundations were banned from Austria and false smears, for example that he instigated racial protests in Charlottesville. Soros, who is Jewish, has also been falsely accused of being a Nazi collaborator.

In this case, the story said Trump had placed a call to Russia to ask about files related to Soros. The story said Trump used a 2014 executive order by Obama to take such action.

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That executive order was real, stating that Obama declared a national emergency to deal with the threat of people undermining democracy in Ukraine. However, there is no evidence that Trump used that order to label Soros a threat to national security.

Soros has been involved in Ukraine for decades and said he established a foundation there before it declared independence from the Russia. His International Renaissance Foundation has invested tens of millions in "Ukrainian NGOs, sponsored conferences, scholarships, human-rights confabs and investigative journalists," the National Post reported in 2015.

In 2015, Soros called on the west to inject $50 billion in Ukraine.

Adrian Karatnycky, an expert on Ukraine and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, which promotes engagement in international affairs, said in general Soros is viewed as a positive figure in Ukraine.

"He is not overtly in step with a particular political party and political movement," he said. "His foundation is pretty sober-minded, reasonably well regarded in Ukraine."

We emailed the Conservative Daily Post and did not get a reply. The Las Vegas-based website states that it "thrives on independent journalism and truth;" however, the story about Soros is not based in evidence. We found no proof that Trump declared Obama a "national security threat."

We rate this story Pants on Fire.