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Trump threatened to sue the Center for American Progress and floated naming its donors as co-defendants over a National Guard crime report

On the night of August 11, 2026, President Trump posted on Truth Social threatening to sue the Center for American Progress (CAP) over its July 13 report finding no evidence that National Guard deployments reduced violent crime and estimating the deployments would cost more than $1.7 billion. Trump said he was "strongly considering" adding some of CAP's donors — including George Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, Google, Apple, and Goldman Sachs — as co-defendants, calling the report a "Radical Left SCAM." The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) called the donor-naming threat "wholly incompatible with a free society."

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On the night of August 11, 2026, President Trump posted on Truth Social threatening a defamation lawsuit against the Center for American Progress (CAP), a left-leaning policy think tank, after its associate director of public safety, Chandler Hall, discussed the organization's July 13 report on C-SPAN. That report found no evidence that National Guard deployments to American cities had reduced violent crime over the prior year and estimated the deployments would cost more than $1.7 billion in taxpayer money if continued through the end of the year.

Trump called the report "just another Radical Left SCAM, as are the people who fund this gaggle of Lunatics," and wrote: "This will be met with a lawsuit, which is being drawn now. I am also strongly considering adding some of the contributors to this Fake Organization" — naming George Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, Google, Apple, and Goldman Sachs among others as potential co-defendants. He added, "Crime is way down since I took Office, and they know it. Liars, at this level, must be held accountable!" As of this writing, no lawsuit has been filed.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonprofit that has separately criticized Trump's litigation threats against other critics, condemned the donor-naming threat specifically. "Threatening non-profit donors sends a chilling message: Fund an organization that criticizes me, and you'll be sued too. That's wholly incompatible with a free society," said Aaron Terr, FIRE's director of public advocacy.

Why we recorded this

A think tank's ability to publish research critical of government policy without fear of ruinous litigation is part of the same protection that lets any critic speak against those in power. Trump did not just threaten to sue the Center for American Progress over a report he disputed; he named its donors as potential co-defendants, an outcome unrelated to the report's factual accuracy and calculated to reach the funders behind future criticism, not just the critic itself. This archive records the threat because using litigation, and the prospect of dragging in an organization's financial backers, to answer unfavorable research chills both the speech and the funding that makes it possible, regardless of whether a suit is ever filed.

Sources

  1. 'Liars must be held accountable:' Trump threatens think tank — Raw Story primary accessed August 21, 2026
  2. Trump threatens think tank with lawsuit over disagreement with National Guard effect on crime — Washington Examiner investigative accessed August 21, 2026

See also