Trump threatens defamation lawsuit against Center for American Progress

President Trump has threatened a defamation lawsuit against the Center for American Progress (CAP) following a report regarding National Guard deployments. The report claimed that the administration's use of the National Guard has not resulted in a decrease in crime.

Attorney Alejandro Brito, representing the administration, argued in a letter to CAP that the organization distorted empirical questions to falsely accuse the President of lying to the American people. In response, CAP attorney Kevin Metz stated that truth cannot be defamation and emphasized the importance of the right to dissent and debate government policy.

CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden defended the report, describing the threatened lawsuit as a baseless attempt to silence the organization and suppress facts that are inconvenient to the administration.

Separately, FBI Director Kash Patel noted that newly released data shows violent crime across the United States fell 9.3% in 2025, characterizing the decline as the largest reduction in U.S. history.