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Soros pledges $10M to fight hate crimes

by Nikita Vladimirov - 11/23/16 3:33 PM ET

Billionaire Democratic donor George Soros says he will commit $10 million from his personal foundation to fight a rise of hate crimes he links to President-elect Donald Trump’s “incendiary rhetoric.”

Soros, a business magnate and Holocaust survivor, told The New York Times for a story published Wednesday that he was “deeply troubled” by the rise of hate crimes around the U.S., including Nazi graffiti in public.

{mosads}Soros remarked to the newspaper about “dark forces that have been awakened” by the presidential election and said “we must do something to push back against what’s happening here.”

While Soros maintained that the donation is not intended to be a political statement about the president-elect, the billionaire did hold Trump and his rhetoric partially responsible for the increase in violence in recent weeks.

“Certainly it got inflamed as a result of the campaign, and it broke out really afterwards,” he said.

According to the newspaper, the $10 million donation will likely go to civil rights organizations to help develop plans to combat the rise of violence. Part of the money will also be spent on developing better tools to track hate crimes.

Trump has previously condemned the outbreaks of hate crimes and violence after the election, stating that he was “saddened” by the reports.

Tags Donald Trump