When news spread yesterday that Donald Trump was sliming the Manhattan DA as a “Soros backed animal,” I was not surprised. It was inevitable that, with indictments looming and the walls closing in, he would try to blame the Jews.

George Soros is a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor and billionaire philanthropist who donates money to progressive causes, thus he’s the quintessential stereotype of the so-called Jewish puppeteer who purportedly pulls the strings behind the scenes. When lowlifes like Trump run low of options, antisemitic scapegoating is their Hail Mary elixir.

I get that the guy is soiling his undies at the prospect of finally being held accountable. Maybe that explains why his bigoted outburst was actually a twofer, since it’s racist to refer to the Black DA, Alvin Bragg, as an “animal.” I also have to wonder how Trump has managed to convince himself that Bragg is a Soros marionette. What does it even mean to be “Soros backed” (as echoed this week by Trump toadies Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik and J.D. Vance)? Is it really as scary as it supposedly sounds?

I’ll answer that shortly. But first let’s marvel at how often the rabid right has invoked Soros as its go-to bogeyman. It’s amazing how far and wide he has spread his tentacles.

Like in 2006, for instance, when House Speaker Dennis Hastert was under fire for slow-walking molestation allegations lodged against Republican congressman Mark Foley. Hastert whined that he was the victim of a conspiracy engineered by “a lot of Democratic operatives funded by George Soros.” (Hastert later went to prison for molesting boys; Foley quit his seat because of his conduct.)

Like in 2016, for instance, when “the word” spread through the right-wing fever swamp that Soros owned a company that controlled voting machines in 16 states and planned to rig the votes for Hillary Clinton. (Soros didn’t own a stake in any voting machine company.)

Like in 2017, for instance, when fake emails spread by InfoWars “revealed” that Soros had organized the now-infamous violence in Charlottesville, Virginia; the conspiracists said that Soros wanted lefty protestors to attack the white supremacists and neo-Nazis, in order to discredit all conservatives. There was no proof for any of that, but nutcase congressman Paul Gosar said “it would be interesting to find out” if Soros was involved. (That another right-wing tactic, to just “ask questions.”)

Like in 2017, for instance, when conspiracists said that Soros was behind the spectacle of NFL players taking a knee during the National Anthem, supposedly because he wanted to prompt a race war. (The protesting players were capable of thinking for themselves without help from anyone.)

Like in 2018, for instance, when Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore was under attack for having allegedly molested a string of children. He too blamed Soros: “Soros comes from another world that I don’t identify with…No matter how much money he’s got, he’s still going to the same place that people who don’t recognize God and morality and accept His salvation are going.” (Translation: Because Soros is Jewish, he’s going to hell.)

Like in the aftermath of the Parkland High School massacre, when gun law reformers demanded new measures to protect the lives of innocent kids. Soros got blamed for that, too. Ex-Republican congressman Jack Kingston said that reform efforts were the fault of “organized groups that are out there, like George Soros.” Others tweeted that the heightened demand for gun reform “had GEORGE SOROS’ FINGERPRINTS all over it.” They even lied that Soros paid anti-gun protestors $300 apiece to show up at a rally.

So what do Trump and his MAGA abetters mean when they say that DA Bragg is “Soros backed”? The truth – no surprise – is quite benign.

Soros gave $1 million to the political arm of a group, Color of Change, that seeks to elect Black officeholders nationwide. Color of Change gave $500,000 to Bragg, drawing from its nearly $4-million war chest. CC, not Soros, made the decision to endorse Bragg; reportedly, Soros has never met or spoken to Bragg. And even if you could somehow trace Bragg’s specific CC stipend back to Soros, it ultimately wasn’t much – because Bragg was vastly outspent in the DA race by the rival candidate who finished second.

But Trump doesn’t do nuance; he traffics in toxicity – now more than ever, as the day of reckoning draws nearer. By scapegoating Soros, did he intend to smear all Jewish people? Doesn’t matter. As the Anti-Defamation League said five years ago, “A person who promotes a Soros conspiracy theory may not intend to promulgate antisemitism. But Soros’ Jewish identity is so well-known that in many cases it is hard not to infer that meaning…Even if no antisemitic insinuation is intended, casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes has the effect of mainstreaming antisemitic tropes and giving support, however unwitting, to bona fide antisemites and extremists who disseminate these ideas knowingly and with malice.”

And haven’t we seen all this before? Consider this book passage:

“As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, had flashed on the screen. There were hisses here and there among the audience…He was still alive and hatching his conspiracies…It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair…uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out…People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen…”

That’s from the Two-Minute Hate, in the opening chapter of Orwell’s “1984.”

So the rage (mis-)directed at Soros, stoked by Trump, is nothing new. Tragically, it’s deja vu.