Forbes cleans up on aisle Soros

Democrats' defense of Nazi tattoo-bearer/U.S. senatorial candidate Graham Platner is reprehensible. That scandal, though, has ugly company.

For the purpose of 10/20/2025 George Soros PR puffery, Forbes writer Ty Roush hefted the Fake News banner. He branded as a "baseless conspiracy theory" the assertion that, when 14 years-old, Soros bore witness (without protest) to Third Reich-era Nazis seizing Jewish property.

Before I tear down Roush's fabulism, consider these verbatim quotes from Soros himself, made during a 1998 interview with CBS 60 Minutes host Steve Kroft:

KROFT: "You're a Hungarian Jew who escaped the Holocaust by posing as a Christian."

SOROS: "Right."

KROFT: "And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the death camps."

SOROS: "Right. I was 14 years-old. And I would say that's when my character was made."

KROFT: "In what way?"

SOROS: "That one should think ahead. That one should understand and anticipate events. And when one is threatened - it was a tremendous threat of evil, a very personal experience of evil."

KROFT: "My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted [Christian] godson. Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews."

SOROS: "That's right."

KROFT: "I mean, that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?"

SOROS: "Not at all, not at all. Maybe as a child, you don't see the connection. But it was -- it created no problem, at all."

KROFT: "No feeling of guilt?"

SOROS: "No."

KROFT: "For example: 'I'm Jewish, and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.' None of that?"

SOROS: "Well, of course I could be on the other side, or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn't be there, because that was -- well, actually, in a funny way, it's just like in markets. That if I weren't there -- of course, I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would be taking it away, anyhow."

In a 2023 Jerusalem Post essay, Larry Pfeffer observed "By his insensitive logic, German, Japanese, and Russian soldiers could also have exclaimed that they don't need to regret raping women, since if they didn't, then someone else would have."

Forbes' Roush noted the Soros 60 Minutes interview. But he did not nmention that the subject had, in that same interview, conceded the allegation's soundness.

In his article, "Trump targets George Soros: Billionaire accused of funding 'No Kings' protests," Roush denied the fact of Soros' complicity.

One passage in Roush's Forbes article was titled "Soros strangely accused of collaborating with Nazis." 

It read: "Another baseless conspiracy theory circulated on social media in 2018 claiming Soros, whose family survived the Nazis' occupation of Hungary and the Holocaust, collaborated with the Nazis. The movement gained steam after actress Roseanne Barr, who spread several conspiracies in a social media frenzy, wrote, 'George Soros is a Nazi who turned in his fellow Jews [to] be murdered in German concentration camps and stole their wealth.' Barr’s message was shared by Donald Trump Jr., who later denied having shared 'anything that was antisemitic.' Alex Jones supported Barr’s claims and alleged Soros admitted to collaborating with Nazis in a 1998 interview—though Soros told 60 Minutes he experienced a 'tremendous evil, a very personal experience of evil.'"

(Interesting is that Roush savaged Roseanne Barr, though the Forbes functionary omitted that Barr, herself, is Jewish. Acknowledging the comedienne's own Jewishness would have rendered Roush's flackery awkward, if not impossible.)

14 year-old Soros settled upon his choice for self-preservation's sake, in a doubtlessly terrifying moment. But he was quite old when 60 Minutes profiled him, and could no longer find refuge behind the excuse of immaturity. He rationalized it.

So, recall Soros's 1998 public admission, and his contemporary lack of moral qualms about his involvement, when next you hear Democrats he supports falsely smear Trump as Hitler, and compare MAGA patriots to Nazis.

Reflect, too, on the verity of President Trump's frequent admonition that the mainstream press is an enemy of the American people. 

Roush's choreographed deceits may keep Forbes wage envelopes streaming his way, but they do dirt to legitimate interests of journalistic accuracy and public knowledge.

(The intended nature of this piece was specified in a 10/24 request for comment that was emailed to Roush. He did not respond.)

Iowa's DC Larson is the author of That a Man Can Again Stand Up and Ideas Afoot. He counts among freelance credits The Iowa Standard, American Thinker, and numerous Iowa papers. His political blog is American Scene Magazine.