The president of the leftist magazine The Nation Bhaskar Sunkara was up in arms over Vice President J.D. Vance’s connection of his publication to billionaire George Soros during a recent TV appearance. The reality: Vance was hovering over the target, and Sunkara was being blatantly deceptive. Sunkara railed against Vance in an X post for saying Soros “funds” The Nation: “I'm not sure where he's getting his information, but JD Vance is lying about The Nation magazine.” He continued, claiming unequivocally that “we're not funded, not one dime, by Soros or Open Society Foundation.” Here’s the deception: Up until 2019, The Nation was directly affiliated with the nonprofit media outfit The Nation Institute, which had in fact received at least $1,349,000 from Soros’s organizations between 2004 and 2019, according to Foundation Directory Online data. In January 2019, it was announced that The Nation Institute was officially rebranding to become the Type Media Center to expand beyond its connections to the magazine. Type Media Center Executive Director and CEO Taya Kitman, said in a statement then that “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.” Apparently, there is still a connection between the organizations. The MacArthur Foundation, another leftist donor organization, described the relationship this way in a 2023 grant for $325,000 to the Center: “Type Media Center is a nonprofit organization that supports journalism and nonfiction writing through book publishing, fellowship programs, and The Nation magazine.”  I'm not sure where he's getting his information, but JD Vance is lying about The Nation magazine. 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. pic.twitter.com/LmcGgxVIWN — Bhaskar Sunkara (@sunraysunray) September 15, 2025 Should we just pretend this connection doesn’t exist? After all, Soros has continued to fund the Center long after the rebrand. His most recent grant to the Center was in 2022 and amounted to $150,000 to "build a more equitable future in the field of public interest journalism by strengthening publishing and independent media.” One 2018 $60,000 grant from Soros, was intended “to provide support for the editorial director fellowship, which will enhance the Nation Institute's ability to undertake and support activities with emphasis on the independent media, civil liberties, social justice and peace.”  Either Sunkara doesn’t understand the concept of money being fungible or he knew all of this and pretended that one degree of separation between his publication and Soros meant definitively that “not one dime” has circulated through the magazine. Vance’s point in bringing up The Nation’s funding was the publication’s rabid hostility towards late TPUSA Founder Charlie Kirk, who was murdered in cold blood by an assassin during a September 10 event at Utah Valley University. One September 12 piece was about as vile as it gets: “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning: The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn’t a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division.”  Is it beyond the pale for Soros to even be remotely connected to such race-baiting propaganda? No, and the money trail proves that he has been a longstanding fan of The Nation network, whether Sunkara chooses to admit it or not.