But none of the petitions that have passed the 100 000-signature threshold have received any response from president Trump. There are already several that have made the headlines: an unanswered petition seeking the immediate release of the president’s tax returns is still the most popular with over 1.1 million signatures, followed by a demand to formally list the Antifa movement as a terrorist group with over 300 000 signatures.
The latest petition against Soros was posted on the “We the People” on the White House website on 20 August. To trigger an official response, the 100 000-signature threshold had to be crossed within 30 days. On Saturday afternoon it’s been digitally signed over 110 000 times, well within the time limit.
“George Soros has willfully and on an ongoing basis attempted to destabilize and otherwise commit acts of sedition against the United States and its citizens,” the petition states, by creating and funding NGOs exclusively devoted to facilitating “the collapse of the systems and Constitutional government of the United States”.
Soros “has developed unhealthy and undue influence over the entire Democrat Party and a large portion of the US Federal government,” according to the petition, and “the DOJ should immediately declare George Soros and all of his organisations and staff members to be domestic terrorists.”
The “We the People” portal was launched by the Obama administration in 2011, enabling anyone to log-on to the White House website and post a petition potentially triggering an official response.
Soros, 87, is a Hungarian-born billionaire and supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 race, and called the current president a “con artist and would-be dictator”.
Meanwhile a Republican state senator from Pennsylvania refused to apologise for decribing billionaire Democratic megadonor Soros “a Hungarian Jew” with “a hatred for America” following the accusations of “anti-Semitism”. The Democratic Party in the state denounced Wagner and his comments, as “anti-Semitic”.
Sen. Scott Wagner told the The York Daily Record that people were overreacting over his comments. “Everybody’s getting their knickers around their ankles over this and there’s no reason for that,” he said. Wagner responded that if Soros had been Catholic he would have called him a Hungarian Catholic, which is not considered an offense. He added that his comments should not be interpreted as racist, because he has a long history of donating to the local Jewish Community Center.
The senator’s comments were recorded by someone from the opposition during a tomato festival in Pittston, Pennsylvania last week. The state senator is seeking next year’s Republican nomination for governor and currently campaigning.
