Why Does Tim Walz’s Billionaire Buddy Alex Soros Love the Albanian Narco-State?

Alex Soros was one of the first big names to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as President Joe Biden’s campaign imploded, and he had his photo taken with Walz at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month, where the left-wing oligarch declared himself “Walzpilled!” Still, Tuesday’s meeting at the investor’s palatial New York City residence, when Walz appeared deferential to his benefactor, drew attention.

Republican pundits were quick to heap scorn on how Walz, the vaunted down-to-earth “man of the people,” bowed down to the scion of the Soros dynasty. Walz’s appearance with the ultimate radical fake-baby was hardly compatible with how “middle-class” Harris and her running mate portray themselves to voters. However, giving Alex Soros what he wants in exchange for his money and publicity is exactly what voters can expect from a Harris-Walz presidency when the two take office on January 20.

This has implications that go beyond domestic politics and the usual pay-to-play with left-wing big donors who have been supporting Democratic presidencies for decades. Although hardly anyone in the media has bothered to notice, Alex Soros has disturbing foreign connections that deserve closer examination.

For reasons that are hard to decipher, Alex Soros has shown a high level of interest in Albania, an impoverished Balkan country of fewer than 3 million people that, outside of crime, has no role in the global economy (Albania’s GDP is less than half that of any U.S. state, while its per capita GDP ranks between Armenia and Barbados). That said, Alex Soros does spend a lot of time in Albania, where he hangs out with longtime Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Since 2012, Rama has ruled Albania as his personal fiefdom, leading his Socialist Party and turning the country into an authoritarian sinkhole of corruption, as even human rights organizations that are hardly critical of the left are happy to admit. Under Rama, enemies of the socialists have been harassed, silenced, and arrested. If you want to learn how to use lawfare to eliminate political rivals under the guise of “fighting corruption,” Rama’s Albania is your guide.

Worse still, Rama’s tenure has turned his tiny country into a European hub for the illegal drug trade. As a top German newspaper that is barely right-wing recently put it, Rama has “transformed Albania into an autocratic narco-state.”

As I’ve reported before, Rama’s Albania has become indispensable to the global trade in illegal drugs, particularly cocaine, and has destabilized countries on multiple continents. The Biden administration has a strange tolerance for Rama’s narco-state in Europe, insisting that socialist Albania is doing a great job of fighting crime, when it’s the opposite. Even Rama’s involvement in the scandalous corruption of former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, one of the worst scandals in the bureau’s history, hasn’t tarnished Rama’s standing with the Biden-Harris administration.

It’s worth asking whether Alex Soros’ friendship with Rama has anything to do with this inexplicable leniency in Washington, DC. To say that the billionaire has a man crush on the socialist leader would be an understatement. Alex Soros shows up in Albania’s capital Tirana (hardly a jet-set destination) and regularly posts cringe-worthy photos of his just-us-bros moments with Rama. He publicly refers to Rama as “my brother in Tirana” and “my brother from another mother,” with Rama, a 6-foot-1 former basketball player, towering over the much shorter oligarch.

Since there is not much legal to invest in, and they probably do not only talk about basketball, it seems important to know why Alex Soros considers Tirana his second home. His deep connection to Rama is hard to explain.

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If the Harris-Walz presidency is planning to let Alex Soros set policy in the White House, Republicans should quickly ask themselves why the left-wing philanthropist thinks Rama’s Albania, the definition of a socialist authoritarian kleptocracy, is such a good example to follow.

Because if that’s what the Democrats have in store for America, voters have a right to know.

John R. Schindler served as a senior intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer at the National Security Agency.