Trump threatens lawsuit against nonprofit that questioned whether National Guard plan lessened crime

President Donald Trump is threatening a $5 billion lawsuit against the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress. Trump demands the organization retract a report published on July 13 that concluded his National Guard deployments to various cities had no measurable effect on violent crime trends. The Center for American Progress has refused, with its president stating the lawsuit is an attempt to silence them. Trump's attorney claims the report made false, malicious, and defamatory statements causing financial and reputational harm. The nonprofit's counsel argues that truth cannot be defamation, citing well-established, speech-protective legal standards. This action is described as part of Trump's pattern of threatening lawsuits over unfavorable media coverage.

Donald Trump's lawyer has threatened a $5 billion lawsuit against the Center for American Progress (Cap), a liberal thinktank, unless it retracts a report released on July 13. The report argues that the National Guard's deployment in Washington D.C., Memphis, and Los Angeles had no measurable impact on crime, despite costing an estimated $1.7 billion. Cap's analysis concluded that crime rates in these cities did not decrease differently from cities without National Guard intervention, and that violent crime had already been falling before Trump took office. Cap's president stated the report presented facts inconvenient to the administration and that the lawsuit is an attempt to silence them, asserting their findings are factual and not about Trump personally.