Vice President JD Vance accused The Nation of being funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation after the magazine published a controversial article comparing slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
The dispute escalated Monday after The Nation’s president denied the claim, despite evidence of substantial past funding from Soros-affiliated groups.
The controversy began when The Nation ran a column by former Gawker editor Elizabeth Spiers titled “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning.”
In the opening of the 1,000-word essay, Spiers labeled Kirk “an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist.”
The piece drew outrage for attempting to tie Kirk, who was assassinated on September 10 at Utah Valley University, to Nazi ideology.
While guest hosting The Charlie Kirk Show, Vance pointed directly at the magazine’s financial backers.
“The Nation isn’t a fringe blog,” Vance said.
“It’s a well-funded, well-respected magazine whose publishing history goes back to the American Civil War. George Soros’s Open Society Foundation funds this magazine.”
The Nation’s president, Bhaskar Sunkara, disputed Vance’s statement in a post to X.
“I’m not sure where he’s getting his information, but JD Vance is lying about The Nation magazine,” Sunkara wrote.
“We’d welcome donations from anyone who respects our editorial independence, but we’re not funded, not one dime, by Soros or Open Society Foundation.”
However, records show Soros-affiliated groups have funneled millions into The Nation’s nonprofit arm.
According to Media Research Center’s NewsBusters, between 2004 and 2019, Soros organizations contributed at least $1,349,000 to The Nation Institute, the nonprofit affiliated with the magazine.
In January 2019, The Nation Institute was rebranded as the Type Media Center, which continued to maintain ties with the publication.
At the time of the rebrand, Type Media Center’s CEO Taya Kitman explained, “When the Nation Institute was founded more than 50 years ago, we were a modest organization affiliated with the Nation Magazine — but that name no longer reflects the breadth and impact of what we do today.”
Despite the new branding, funding has continued.
A 2022 Soros-backed grant of $150,000 was earmarked to “build a more equitable future in the field of public interest journalism by strengthening publishing and independent media.”
Other left-leaning donors also describe the relationship openly.
The MacArthur Foundation awarded a $325,000 grant in 2023, describing Type Media Center as supporting “journalism and nonfiction writing through book publishing, fellowship programs, and The Nation magazine.”
Sunkara’s denial drew sharp responses from conservatives.
Alex Brusewitz, a senior advisor to President Trump, wrote on X: “Your non-profit took over $1 million from George Soros, then you slandered my friend Charlie Kirk while his body was still warm. You are a horrible person.”
Your non-profit took over $1 million from George Soros, then you slandered my friend Charlie Kirk while his body was still warm.
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) September 16, 2025
You are a horrible person. https://t.co/jxPsInCGi3
Conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky added, “The Nation’s non-profit arm ‘the Nation Institute,’ which paid its journalists salaries, got $1.3 million from Soros.”
Total lie. The Nation’s non-profit arm “the Nation Institute,” which paid its journalists salaries, got $1.3 milllion from Soros. https://t.co/YrKYJyVxjh
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) September 16, 2025
Jack Posobiec also weighed in, calling the arrangement “a standard leftist media tactic to hide the money they take from far-left NGO’s.”
George Soros paid the Nation’s nonprofit $1.35 million. This is a standard leftist media tactic to hide the money they take from far-left NGOs https://t.co/FaNDmoCKUo pic.twitter.com/0hecbxhSC2
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 16, 2025
While hosting Kirk’s show, Vance also disputed Spiers’s portrayal of Kirk, pointing to her own cited evidence.
“Made an argument for judging people of all races and backgrounds by their own individual merits,” Vance said of Kirk.
“With the very evidence she provides, this hack of a writer shows that she lied about a dead man, and yet she wrote it, an esteemed magazine published it, it made it through the editors and, of course, liberal billionaires rewarded that attack.”
The Nation later issued a correction acknowledging that the article “attributed a quote to Charlie Kirk incorrectly.”
Spiers, the author of the column, previously worked for Gawker, the outlet that filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after being ordered to pay wrestler Hulk Hogan $140 million in damages for publishing a sex tape without consent.
The clash between Vance and The Nation underscores ongoing disputes over media funding, political narratives, and the handling of commentary surrounding Kirk’s assassination.
