The European Union spent three years fining American tech companies billions of dollars – and Trump went to war over it.
Now a Democrat-backed group is pushing that same playbook inside the United States.
What they built to replace Project 2025 has George Soros's fingerprints all over it.
Project 2029 and the Soros Money Behind the Democrat Tech Agenda
Project 2029 is the Left's answer to Project 2025 – a policy machine designed to hand the next Democrat presidential nominee a ready-made agenda from day one.
Their first move: a sweeping tech crackdown called "Kids Over Clicks," targeting social media, chatbots, and the Section 230 liability shield that has protected online free speech for decades.
The group co-writing this agenda is Reset Tech, a Washington policy firm led by Ben Scott – a former Hillary Clinton adviser.
In 2024, Reset Tech received a $2 million grant from George Soros's Open Society Foundations. The money was earmarked specifically for "encouraging effective enforcement" of the EU's Digital Services Act – the same European censorship regime Trump has been fighting since he took office.
Marco Rubio imposed visa bans on EU tech enforcement officials for pushing this exact law. JD Vance called it a tool for "authoritarian censorship." Trump signed an executive memo pledging to combat the fines and policies that foreign governments use to punish American companies.
The Democrats just hired the firm Soros paid to push it.
The "Kids Over Clicks" proposal reads like a Brussels wish list.
Social media banned for anyone under 16. Smartphones banned for children under 14. Section 230 rewritten so tech companies can be sued for content their chatbots generate, paid ads, and any platform that pushes harmful material toward minors. Tighter restrictions on chatbots including ChatGPT.
Chad Maisel, Project 2029's executive director, served on Biden's Domestic Policy Council. The proposal itself was written by Rishi Bharwani, who previously led Senator Cory Booker's tech policy team. Booker has already endorsed it.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed on. So did Randi Weingarten, the teachers' union president who spent the pandemic keeping schools closed.
This is not a fringe proposal. It is the Democrat Party's official 2028 strategy.
Silicon Valley Chose Trump for a Reason
The last time Democrats went to war with Big Tech, Silicon Valley responded by writing checks to Donald Trump.
Mark Zuckerberg spent years warning that the Biden administration was stabbing American companies in the back.
"The U.S. government should be defending its companies, not being the tip of the spear attacking its companies," he said in early 2025. "When the U.S. government does that to its tech industry, it's really just open season around the rest of the world."
EU officials fined Apple and Meta a combined €700 million in a single month. X was hit with a €120 million fine for how it labels verification checkmarks. Google faces investigations that could cost billions more. Trump threatened tariffs and went to war with Brussels over every dollar of it.
Now Democrats want to import that same machine.
Robert Winterton of the tech policy group NetChoice put it directly: "The Digital Services Act gives European regulators direct leverage over what platforms let their users say. Importing that approach to the United States would put the government in the middle of speech decisions the First Amendment keeps out of its hands."
Soros Paid Reset Tech to Enforce EU Censorship Law – Now Democrats Want It Here
Project 2029's backers say they are protecting children.
Trump is protecting children too – without handing a Soros-funded lobbying firm the keys to the internet.
The 25 House Republicans who wrote Trump last week demanding Section 301 trade investigations into the EU's tech laws understand exactly what is at stake.
When Europe fines American companies for their content decisions, it is not a safety regulation. It is a speech tax enforced by foreign governments.
Democrats just proposed bringing it home.
The same party that called Project 2025 a fascist takeover just built their own policy machine – bankrolled by the same man who paid Reset Tech to enforce European censorship law on American companies.
None of them have explained why Americans should trust George Soros's funding priorities with their First Amendment rights.
Sources:
- Thomas Barrabi, "Dem-backed 'Project 2029' wants a tech clampdown that looks like Europe's," New York Post, July 20, 2026.
- "Rising Democrats back new Big Tech proposal for Project 2029," Washington Examiner, June 2026.
- "U.S. lawmakers urge President Trump to strike back against EU tech regulation with trade probes," Washington Examiner, July 21, 2026.
- "Trump Threatens 25% Tariffs on EU Tech After €4.3bn Google Fine," Washington Times, February 2026.
