Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

Last week, President Joe Biden awarded the 2024 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. government’s highest civilian honor, to 18 people. On his way out the door, Biden almost seemed to be trolling his successor and his supporters with the honorees, who included some of the right’s greatest modern villains: Hillary Clinton, Bono, and George Romney (Mitt’s deceased moderate father) among them. Then there was Robert F. Kennedy, Bill Nye “the Science Guy,” and Jane Goodall—curious choices as science skeptic RFK Jr. prepares to take over America’s federal health regime. Maybe most troll-seeming (or, if you like, the most liberal fever dream) of all among the medalists, though, was George Soros, the Hungarian-born Jewish financier and philanthropist who is also the subject of countless right-wing conspiracy theories.

To some, the medal was due recognition for Soros’ decades of philanthropic efforts through his Open Society Foundations to promote more democratic, humane, and just societies around the world. To others, it was a sad little end to the Biden administration: a man who did not manage to stop Donald Trump from returning to power awarding a man who worked toward promoting liberal democracy only to see it wane worldwide in what are likely his final years alive. (Soros is 94.) And to people who have long railed against Soros’ political influence, including Elon Musk, it was a disaster.

“A travesty that Biden is giving Soros the Medal of Freedom,” the world’s richest man tweeted on X, the platform he owns, sharing a post that quoted himself saying that Soros “fundamentally hates humanity” and is trying to erode the fabric of civilization. In another post, Musk offered: “George Soros looks quite good here. Must be the lighting,” along with an A.I.-generated image of Biden handing a medal to Emperor Palpatine, the villain from Star Wars.

© Slate