President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is filing a lawsuit against the Center for American Progress (CAP), the left-leaning think tank funded in part by Democratic megadonor George Soros, over a report claiming that deploying the National Guard to several U.S. cities had no measurable effect on reducing violent crime.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the lawsuit was “being drawn now” and that he was “strongly considering adding some of the contributors to this Fake Organization.” The president had previously shared a version of the same message on August 10, according to the post.
The dispute centers on a CAP analysis authored by Chandler Hall, the organization’s associate director of public safety. The report argued that the Trump administration “is trying to take credit for the historic drop in violent crime across America despite the fact that this trend began before it took office.” It further stated that the administration was using those declines to justify “expanding policies that are unpopular, ineffective, and costly.”
“However, new Center for American Progress analysis finds no evidence that National Guard deployments have reduced violent crime,” the report said. It also warned that if deployments were extended through the end of 2026, they could cost American taxpayers more than $1.7 billion.
In his Truth Social post, Trump singled out Hall by name, writing: “Chandler Hall, representing, on Television, the foolish Center for American Lack of Progress, stated that adding the National Guard to Cities, including our now Great Again, Washington, D.C., had ‘NO impact on Crime.’ How crazy is that.”
The president went on to call the report “just another Radical Left SCAM,” listing a series of organizations and individuals that he said fund CAP, including Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, Google, Apple, Visa, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Walmart, Toyota, T-Mobile, and NBC Universal. He also noted that foreign contributions had come from the Embassy of Japan, the Korea Foundation, and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, among others.
“The Dumocrats love it, and are against anything ‘TRUMP,’ ” Trump wrote. “These people, and others like them, are so bad for our Country. Their stated course is anything to hate or demean ‘TRUMP.’”
The CAP report, released in the context of the administration’s public safety push, noted that the National Guard had been deployed to cities including Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and New Orleans to address crime and unrest. It argued that the president “is exploiting the fact that violent crime and murder were already declining in the cities his administration targeted with these extreme interventions.”
According to the report, the 11 cities where the National Guard was deployed or threatened to be deployed saw an average 14 percent decrease in their 12-month rolling violent crime rate and a 22 percent decrease in their 12-month rolling murder rate from June 2024 to June 2025, before the National Guard was first deployed to Los Angeles.
Trump’s announcement drew a sharp response from his political allies, who argued that the president’s law-and-order agenda has been effective. Breitbart News reported in August 2025 that violent crime in Washington, D.C., had decreased by 22 percent in the week after Trump announced his crackdown in the city, with no murders reported over that seven-day period.
The lawsuit, if filed, would be the latest in a series of legal actions Trump has taken against media organizations, think tanks, and other entities he accuses of spreading false information about his administration. The president has long criticized CAP, describing it as a “radical left” organization that opposes his policies at every turn.
Neither CAP nor Hall immediately responded to requests for comment on Trump’s announcement. Legal experts note that defamation suits against think tanks and policy organizations face high hurdles, requiring proof that statements were made with actual malice if the plaintiff is a public figure.
The controversy touches on a broader debate over how much credit the Trump administration can claim for recent crime declines. While data from major cities show notable drops in violent crime and homicides over the past year, the administration’s critics say the trend predates Trump’s return to office. The CAP analysis argues that the president’s use of National Guard deployments is an “extreme intervention” that has not been proven to reduce crime, despite the administration’s claims.
Trump, however, has continued to paint the report as a political attack rather than a legitimate policy analysis. “The report is just another Radical Left SCAM,” he wrote, reiterating his belief that CAP and its funders are driven by opposition to him personally.
It remains unclear when the lawsuit will be formally filed or what specific legal claims it will include. Trump’s post on Truth Social suggested that he is still in the process of deciding which parties to name, leaving open the possibility that individual donors or foreign entities could be added to the case.
The episode is the latest flashpoint in the ongoing conflict between the Trump administration and progressive policy organizations. CAP has been one of the most prominent liberal think tanks in Washington, and its research on public safety has now become the center of a political and legal battle that pits the president’s claims of success against data-driven critiques.
For now, both sides appear dug in. The president has framed the lawsuit as a defense of his administration’s record and a warning to groups he sees as politically motivated. CAP’s report, meanwhile, stands by its analysis, arguing that the administration is taking credit for crime reductions that began before its policies were implemented.
As the legal process moves forward, the case is likely to reignite questions about the intersection of politics, policy research, and the power of the presidency to challenge its critics in court.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/07/trump-announces-lawsuit-against-george-soros-funded-center-for-american-progress-over-claim-national-guard-had-no-impact-on-crime/