#CAP is led by #NeeraTanden [💕], one of the Democratic Party’s most influential power players & a veteran of the past three Democratic admins. But a less partisan #ThinkTank, the #NiskanenCenter, published its own report in May that also found no effect on violent crime in DC attributable to the #NationalGuard deployment. (It did find a reduction in property crime, which CAP did not analyze.)

#law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #Trump #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny

If a more #Trump - friendly #ThinkTank … wants to publish research showing the deployment has reduced violent crime, it’s free to do so. The America First Policy Institute published a fact sheet last year touting a positive economic impact from the Guard’s presence. The Center for Renewing America, in an article defending the legality of Trump’s actions last year, noted a decline in violent crime. Neither attempted to demonstrate a causal link between the deployment & the reduction.

#law

What set #Trump off was a #CAP report that found #NationalGuard deployments in DC have not contributed to the decline of violent crime. Trump said on social media that he’s drawing up a lawsuit against the liberal #ThinkTank & suggested that he might include some of its contributors. Trump named Google, Apple, Visa, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Walmart, Toyota, T-Mobile & NBC Universal.

#law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #authoritarianism #autocracy #fascism #tyranny

#Trump’s attack on a #ThinkTank is an affront to the #FirstAmendment

#Republicans would be rightly irate if a Democratic president threatened to sue a conservative think tank & punish its corporate #donors over #research the White House didn’t like, but Trump’s attack this week on the Center for American Progress [ #CAP ] & its funders has been met with shrugs & silence.

#law #Constitution #ThoughtPolice #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny
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