President Donald Trump’s assertion that ‘paid agitators’ are causing turmoil in Los Angeles has prompted inquiries into the protest organizations and possibly untraceable funds from billionaires that might be fueling the disorder in the nation’s second-largest city.

During a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, Trump referred to some LA protesters as ‘paid insurrectionist or agitator or troublemakers,’ indicating they were supported by undisclosed groups, though he did not identify these groups by name.

His remarks increased the focus on the protests, which began in downtown LA on Friday in reaction to federal immigration raids and escalated into confrontations with law enforcement, acts of vandalism, and widespread looting.

The masks and other gear worn by some protestors, and trademark riot techniques such as breaking apart curbs to lob concrete at police vehicles, have raised questions about whether experienced agitators are involved.

Online investigators, including Matt Palumbo and DataRepublican, and politicians including Florida congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna have taken to social media to name the groups they claim are behind the protests that led to the violence, and the money that backs them.

They describe a web of connections between the immigrant rights and leftist activists on the streets of LA with such billionaires as George Soros, Neville Singham and even the Chinese Communist Party.

‘The protests we’re seeing aren’t organic – the usual suspects are at it again,’ Palumbo, the author of books on Soros and his son, Alex Soros, told the Daily Mail.

‘There’s a direct line of funding that includes our very own federal government, the state of California and billionaires who have contempt for the nation that enabled their success.’ 

Soros’ group said it does not support the protests in LA and opposes all forms of political violence. 

The Daily Mail took a look at the people and groups involved.

The Shanghai Connection

The US-based Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) organized some of last week’s protests in response to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that snowballed into violence over the weekend.

The Marxist revolutionaries also played a role in last year’s anti-Israel protests that roiled Columbia University. PLS has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through Neville Roy Singham, a Connecticut-born tech entrepreneur who operates from Shanghai.

Singham, together with his wife, Jodie Evans, the founder of antiwar group Code Pink, have been investigated by House Republicans for promoting protests, dissent and unrest in the US for their bosses in Beijing.

Singham sank millions of dollars into backing the groups after selling his software company, ThoughtWorks, for $785 million in 2017.

He shares an office in Shangai with Chinese media company Maku Group, which appears to use language often associated with foreign propaganda.

According to a 2023 investigation by The New York Times, Singham previously claimed he did not work with the Chinese government. However, the paper found that a network he owns coproduced a YouTube show with China’s propaganda department and worked with a Chinese university to ‘spread China’s voice throughout the world.’

The outlet’s lengthy exposé on his far-reaching money machine, which has steered millions to China-friendly nonprofits from South Africa to Ghana, Zambia, Brazil and beyond.

Luna, who sits on the House Oversight and Accountability committee, said on Tuesday she would turn the screws harder on Singham over his ‘funding of a communist group linked to the LA riots and the CCP.’

‘IF HE REFUSES TO APPEAR, HE WILL BE SUBPOENAED, AND IF HE IGNORES THAT HE WILL BE REFERRED TO THE DOJ FOR PROSECUTION,’ the GOP firebrand and Air Force veteran posted on X.

While there may be financial links between Singham, PSL and the peaceful demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown, there is nothing to suggest that those protestors are involved in any of the violence or looting in LA.

The Homegrown Danger

The LA-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) is another group that’s played a role in the protests that spiraled into face-offs with LAPD and federal agents raiding workplaces across the city.

CHIRLA staged rallies in LA last week to denounce the ICE raids, which were said to be targeting criminals living in the US illegally.

Research by Palumbo and others showed how CHIRLA received tens of million of dollars during the Biden administration – mostly from California, but also $450,000 in grants from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide ‘citizenship education and training.’

Following Trump’s return to the White House in January, DHS cut ties with the group and terminated any further funding in March, including recouping some $101,000 that had yet to be paid out.

The group also received more than $500,000 in 2023 alone from the Tides Foundation, the ‘pass-through’ body that Soros’ Open Society Foundation (OSF) uses to bankroll its progressive causes and activists.

Soros has long been a nuisance for conservatives and a focus for conspiracy theorists, who present the Hungarian-American and Jewish billionaire as a puppet master who exerts control over the global economy and governments.

An OSF spokesperson told the Daily Mail that it was not involved in the LA protests, saying the group does not ‘fund, train or direct protestors’ and is opposed to ‘all political violence, including the use of violence in protests.’  

‘All our grantees and partners are expected to comply with our values of non-violence and adherence to the rule of law,’ said the spokesperson. 

A spokesperson for CHIRLA told The New York Post that the group had not ‘participated, coordinated or been part of the protests’ in LA and had only been involved in a single press event last week.

The rest of the time, members had been attending immigration courts and detention centers as part of their lawful campaign, added the spokesperson.

The Mail also reached out to CHIRLA, PLS and Singham for comment, but has not heard back.