The Trump administration’s widening assault on civil society has found its first target in the world of philanthropy: the Open Society Foundations (OSF), established by George Soros and now chaired by his son Alex.1 Trump has called George Soros a “bad guy” who “should be put in jail,” and he recently suggested that prosecutors charge him under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. In September Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche—one of the president’s former personal lawyers, like a number of his appointees to the Justice Department and the courts—took up his recommendation and instructed more than six US attorneys’ offices to launch investigations of OSF on possible charges ranging from arson to support of terrorism, for which no evidence has been offered. Soros began his philanthropic giving in 1979, nine years after founding his enormously successful hedge fund. His first grant was to the University of Cape Town in support of scholarships for Black students under apartheid. Five years later he established a foundation in Hungary, the country of his birth; it became best …