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Fact check: What other organizations or individuals are funding the No Kings protests?
Executive Summary
The main disputed claim is that George Soros’ foundations directly funded the nationwide "No Kings" protests via a $7.61 million grant to Indivisible; contemporaneous local reporting instead attributes organization and visible resources to a coalition of grassroots groups and labor unions. Available reporting shows a specific grant figure tied to Indivisible from Open Society Foundations on October 16, 2025, while multiple October 18, 2025 accounts document on-the-ground organizers in Los Angeles and named civic leaders who supported the protests [1] [2] [3].
1. A headline claim: Soros foundations and a $7.61 million grant — what was reported and when
On October 16, 2025, reports stated that Open Society Foundations awarded $7.61 million in grants to Indivisible, and that Fox-aligned coverage and Senator Ted Cruz framed that figure as direct funding for the "No Kings" protests, alleging the actions were “organized by Soros operatives and funded by Soros money.” This reporting presents a clear numeric link between Soros-affiliated philanthropy and Indivisible, but the claim about those funds being used to run specific demonstrations is an asserted inference in political commentary rather than documentation of line-item spending targeted at the "No Kings" events [1].
2. On-the-ground organizers: who publicly claimed responsibility for the Los Angeles rallies
Independent local reporting on October 18, 2025 identifies 50501 SoCal and SEIU Local 721, along with a coalition including Black Lives Matter Grassroots – Los Angeles, Removal Coalition, Working Families Party and others, as the publicly credited organizers for the Los Angeles "No Kings" event. These pieces document visible coordination among labor unions and community groups, detailed partnerships, and the presence of handmade signage and protest infrastructure, with no explicit mention in those accounts tying the organization or logistical funding to Open Society Foundations grants [2].
3. Political endorsements and civic figures: notable leaders lending support
Coverage from October 18, 2025 recorded that mayors and governors — specifically Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker — spoke at or publicly supported protests in their jurisdictions, signaling political backing from elected officials. These public-facing endorsements indicate institutional visibility and political capital behind the demonstrations, but they do not by themselves constitute evidence about the source of financial backing for event logistics or national coordination [3].
4. Weighing the evidence: grants to Indivisible versus direct event funding
The reporting offers two factual threads: a documented grant relationship between Open Society Foundations and Indivisible, and separate reporting naming local organizers and partners who planned specific rallies. The gap in the chain of evidence is whether the $7.61 million grant was allocated to fund the specific "No Kings" actions—administrative grants can support broad capacity, advocacy, or general operations rather than discrete protest line items. The articles that report the grant do not show expenditure-level accounting tying those dollars to particular events [1] [2].
5. Competing framings: partisan narratives and media incentives
Conservative-aligned outlets and political figures framed the Soros–Indivisible link as an explanation for the protests’ existence, a framing that serves a political narrative about external actors managing grassroots dissent. Local and progressive-oriented reporting emphasized multi-organizational grassroots coalition building, underscoring visible actors on the ground and labor partnerships. Both framings can be accurate about different layers of the story, but neither set of pieces by itself fully proves that one financier directly paid for the nationwide protest infrastructure [1] [2].
6. What’s missing and what would close the circle
To establish a definitive funding chain, reporting would need documentary evidence such as grant agreements, pass-through funding records, or internal budgets showing payments earmarked for the "No Kings" events. The current public reporting provides a documented grant relationship and separately a documented roster of local organizers and officials; it lacks transactional documents or admissions showing the grant funded the specific protests. Without those documents, claims that Soros directly funded the rallies remain plausible but unproven by the cited coverage [1] [2].
7. Bottom line for readers: how to interpret the mixed record
Readers should treat the $7.61 million grant to Indivisible as a verified philanthropic relationship reported on October 16, 2025, and the lists of organizers and elected supporters as verified reporting from October 18, 2025. The evidence supports both that Indivisible received sizable foundation support and that named local groups and unions organized the Los Angeles "No Kings" event, but it does not yet provide a direct, documented money trail proving those specific protests were funded by the Open Society Foundations grant [1] [2] [3].