Alex Soros, son of Democratic philanthropist George Soros, hard-launched his relationship with former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin on Wednesday in a post to social media. Many right-wingers have taken the couple’s Valentine’s Day announcement as proof of a deep state conspiracy.
Soros posted a photo of himself with Abedin in Paris, France yesterday on his Instagram stories. Soros has his arm around Abedin’s waist while seated at a table with sliced bread, a bouquet of roses, a display of rose petals, and small gifts. Abedin holds a rose with a “Happy Valentine’s Day” GIF placed above her head.
Last year, Soros took over his father’s “$25 billion empire,” the Open Society Foundations. On Abedin’s part, she worked for Clinton when she was Secretary of State to former President Barack Obama and was the vice chair of her 2016 presidential campaign—and is divorced from former Congressman and registered sex offender Anthony Weiner.
But some conservatives aren’t rooting for the new couple. In fact, they’re resurfacing conspiracy theories about Clinton and establishment Republicans on social media.
“Huma Abedin is dating Baby Soros!!! Hillary’s aide with connections to… let’s say, shady groups… is in a relationship with the guy who basically funds most of the SHlT we see going wrong in our country today!!” a Trump supporter tweeted. “Things starting to make sense?”
“Now that Huma Abedin is back in the news, flashback to McCain’s funeral. What happened here between Lindsey Graham and Huma?” a viral conspiracy theorist who goes by Clandestine tweeted, alongside a video of Abedin hugging Graham, who also kissed her on the cheek. “And why were then Secretary of Defense General Mattis, and Chief of Staff John Kelly, so interested in the exchange? There’s a shadow war going on.”
The term shadow war refers to global superpowers going up against each other by influencing conflicts between smaller nations that would affect their rival. But right-wing conspiracy theorists—particularly those involved in QAnon—have co-opted the term and used it to claim that former President Donald Trump is fighting “Satan-worshiping, child-eating pedophiles” connected to the Democrats.
Others, like conservative advocacy group ACT for America founder Brigitte Gabriel, simply decried the couple and called them “anti-American.” But former GOP congressional candidate Robby Starbuck took it a step further, tweeting Abedin and Soros’ relationship is the work of the devil.
“In case you didn’t think the devil exists, this seems like good evidence he does,” Starbuck tweeted. “Look at those smiles. The cameraman must have shouted death to America.”
Neither Soros or Abedin are strangers to conspiracy theories. Just last month, conservatives accused Soros calling for the assassination of Trump after he shared a news article about inflation reduction that they believed contained hidden messages. In a statement to the Daily Dot, a spokesperson for The Open Society Foundations said that it was “amazing the lengths to which some people will go to try to distract and divide the country in the face of objectively good news.”
