Trump Threatens Suit Against Think Tank Over Report He Doesn’t Like
NYT > U.S. > Politics — 2026-08-21 09:26:00 — www.nytimes.com
Trump Threatens $5 Billion Lawsuit Against Think Tank Over National Guard Report
President Trump has escalated his campaign against political adversaries by threatening the Center for American Progress (CAP), a prominent liberal think tank, with a $5 billion defamation lawsuit. The move comes after CAP published a report concluding that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country has had little effect on reducing violent crime.
Trump’s Legal Threats and Public Attacks
Trump, through his personal lawyer Alejandro Brito, demanded that CAP retract its report and apologize, claiming the findings were “full of malicious and false statements.” Trump also referred to the report on social media as “another Radical Left SCAM,” and threatened to sue the think tank and several of its funders, including financier George Soros, whom he has repeatedly targeted in public statements.
The letter from Trump’s lawyer set a deadline for CAP’s president, Neera Tanden, and her board to retract the report and apologize, or face legal action and unspecified financial compensation demands. The letter ended with the warning: “PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELVES ACCORDINGLY.”
Pattern of Intimidation
This is not the first time Trump has used the legal system to go after critics. Since his re-election, he has filed lawsuits against news organizations such as the BBC and The Times, alleging defamation, and even sued the Des Moines Register over a poll predicting he would lose the Iowa vote, calling it consumer fraud and election interference. Trump has repeatedly claimed his administration is the most transparent in American history, yet he and his aides have aggressively used lawsuits and executive actions to target law firms, universities, and media outlets. Many of these efforts have failed in court.
Fact-Checking Trump’s Claims
The CAP report, which analyzed homicide, violent crime, and gun victimization data in cities where the National Guard was deployed, found “no evidence” that the deployments reduced crime rates. The report also stated that the primary goal of the deployments was “never to stop crime,” but rather amounted to “a dangerous power grab by the Trump administration.” The deployments are projected to cost taxpayers more than $1.7 billion if continued through 2026.
Trump’s attempt to take credit for a nationwide decline in violent crime is contradicted by the report’s findings, which show the decline began before he returned to the White House and was unrelated to National Guard deployments.
Response from CAP and Broader Community
Neera Tanden, CAP’s president, rejected the legal threats, stating the center would “neither cower nor bend in the face” of legal action and defending the report as “grounded in rigorous, evidence-based research and analysis.” CAP’s lawyer, Kevin H. Metz, dismissed Trump’s accusations as “utterly absurd,” emphasizing that “truth is not and cannot be defamation.”
Other think tanks, including the libertarian Cato Institute, have rallied to CAP’s defense, warning that such lawsuits threaten the ability of independent organizations to challenge those in power without fear of retaliation.
Conclusion
Trump’s latest legal threat against the Center for American Progress fits a broader pattern of using lawsuits to intimidate critics and suppress unflattering analysis, despite constitutional protections for free speech and robust debate. The facts presented in the CAP report directly challenge Trump’s claims about the effectiveness of National Guard deployments, highlighting an ongoing conflict between evidence-based research and the president’s public statements.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/us/politics/trump-lawsuit-liberal-think-tank.html