President Donald Trump is ramping up his legal crusade against his perceived enemies, this time targeting billionaire George Soros and his son.

In a Wednesday Truth Social post, and seemingly unprompted, Trump threatened to slap them with racketeering charges—a legal weapon historically used against members of organized crime—under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act.

The move fits neatly into his playbook: criminalize critics, intimidate opponents, and transform federal law enforcement into a blunt instrument of personal vengeance.

In his post, Trump claimed Soros and his son should face prosecution for supporting nationwide protests.

“George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America,” he wrote, offering no evidence for his claim, as usual.

Soros has long been the right’s favorite villain, blamed for everything from protests to campaigns opposing the Supreme Court. He has been turned into a caricature by the far right: a Jewish philanthropist portrayed as the mastermind of an imagined global plot to destroy “Western civilization.” Antisemitism is baked into the narrative, but that hasn’t slowed Trump or his allies one bit.

In 2018, Trump alleged that demonstrators were “paid for by Soros and others.” During the Women’s March, Black Lives Matter protests, and even recent town halls, Trump has dismissed grassroots dissent as the work of Soros-backed “paid ‘troublemakers.’” And the conspiracy theories resurfaced this summer, when MAGA social media accounts pushed images of stacked pallets of bricks as supposed proof that Soros was arming Los Angeles demonstrators against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump piled on, branding them “Paid Insurrectionists.”

Now he’s arguing such paranoid claims are sturdy enough to justify criminal charges.

“We’re not going to allow these lunatics to rip apart America any more, never giving it so much as a chance to ‘BREATHE,’ and be FREE,” Trump posted on Wednesday. “Soros, and his group of psychopaths, have caused great damage to our Country! That includes his Crazy, West Coast friends.”

And then, like a mob boss delivering a warning, Trump added: “Be careful, we’re watching you!”

The Open Society Foundations, the Soros philanthropy network, quickly fired back, saying it does “not support or fund violent protests,” and blasting Trump’s claims about George and Alex Soros as “outrageous.”

Ironically, Trump himself is familiar with RICO: He was initially charged under the statute in the Georgia election interference case. Of course, that hasn’t stopped him from trying to flip the script and wield it against his foes.

Predictably, Trump’s allies are cheering him on. Tech billionaire and noted antisemite Elon Musk weighed in on Wednesday morning.

“High time action was taken against Soros directly,” he said.

This latest broadside comes as Trump escalates his vendetta against former allies who have turned critics. For example, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, found himself in Trump’s crosshairs over the decade-old “Bridgegate” scandal.

“For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!” Trump wrote on Sunday. He later deflected the question of a possible probe into Christie, telling reporters that the decision was Attorney General Pam Bondi’s to make. This is a worrying sign since Bondi has aimed to protect the president rather than uphold the independence of the Justice Department.

Other perceived political enemies of Trump have been caught up in his wrath recently. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, saw his home and office raided last week. Trump publicly claimed he had nothing to do with the order, but he bragged he could have given it himself as “the chief law enforcement officer” of the nation.

It’s a clear pattern: Trump floats the threats and leaves his DOJ to do the dirty work.

While the president insists he’s no authoritarian, he’s acting like the textbook definition of a dictator. The result is something darker: a justice system warped into his own form of mob rule.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos