Trump Targets NGOs to Dismantle Civil Society

INSIDE: Vanita Gupta ... Liz Oyer ... RFK Jr.

(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

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An Existential Threat to NGOs

As President Trump continues his onslaught on centers of power he can’t directly control – higher education, media, and law firms – I want to zero in for a moment on NGOs. We don’t usually think of nongovernmental organizations as having much overt political power, but collectively they form of safety net of sorts for democracy.

NGOs collect and analyze data, advocate for and against public policy, provide crucial social services, and perhaps most importantly in the current moment they litigate in defense of democracy and the rule of law. Collectively, they serve as a bulwark of civil society.

Trump targeted NGOs in one of his early anti-DEI executive orders, but we’ve seen the administration use the pretense of “anti-discrimination” to root around in all manner of internal operations and functions of universities and other targets, so the threat is broad and existential. No NGO is safe, whether they’re legal advocacy groups fighting the important court battles of the Trump II era or aid organizations dependent on USAID funding to fulfill their civic missions.

In one especially glaring example, the administration has brought Media Matters to its knees, helped by serial civil lawsuits against it by Elon Musk, as the NYT reported in detail over the weekend. A liberal advocacy group with a two-decade track record of pillorying outlets that traffic in right-wing propaganda and steadily raising substantial funds from donors is now facing an existential threat from the ongoing attacks, including from the White House and FTC.

Vanita Gupta, a civil rights attorney who comes from the legal advocacy NGO world and served as the No. 3 in the Biden DOJ, wrote in a NYT op-ed over the weekend:

All of this suggests a bigger, more fundamental goal: to shut down debate, cut off services to disfavored communities and dismantle civil society. These actions are unconstitutional, un-American and harm us all.

The history of the first six months of the Trump II presidency will be written with a heavy emphasis on the role of NGOs. The ACLU, labor unions, and other legal advocacy NGOs have won decisive victories in courts against lawless mass deportation, funding freezes, and the dismantling of government agencies. Even when they’ve lost in court, they’ve exposed new information, forced courts to draw lines, and mitigated some of the worst Trump impulses.

I’m often been asked since Jan. 20, Why isn’t anyone doing anything? I gently point to NGOs. These are real people doing important things with minimal resources and a lot of guts.

AEA Detainee Describes Being Raped at CECOT

An openly gay Venezuelan men who was among those removed to El Salvador under the Aliens Enemies and is now free after being repatriated recounts being forced to perform oral sex on a guard at CECOT.

Good Read

Former TPMer Matt Shuham: I Watched 20 Arrests In Trump’s America. Here’s What They Looked Like.

Quote of the Day

Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, who continues to speak out after being fired by the Trump administration:

Those in the legal profession are facing hard and often costly choices at the moment. This is not a lecture or a judgment. It is a sincere plea to my colleagues to look beyond the short-term costs of standing up and speaking out, and to consider the longer-term consequences of staying in the shadows and bearing witness silently. If you are alarmed by the damage that has been done in just six months—if you are afraid of where we may be in year—please consider sharing your name, showing your face, and voicing your concerns.

It Just Gets Worse

The Trump administration gave sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell limited immunity to answer questions from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, CNN reports. Meanwhile, Trump is playing not-very-coy about pardoning Maxwell:

The Corruption: New Air Force One Edition

The latest developments:

• CNN got ahold of the agreement between Qatar and the Trump administration for the “unconditional donation” of a 747 to the Pentagon for short-term use as a replacement for Air Force One before it’s given to the Trump presidential library for his personal use.

• The NYT reports that the money needed to bring the plane up to Air Force One standards – a process that may be too time consuming to complete before Trump leaves office – appears to be hidden away in a $1 billion Air Force transfer to an unnamed classified project.

Only the Best People

Darren Beattie, fired during Trump I for attending a white nationalist conference, is the Trump II pick to lead the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Make America Gruesome Again

WSJ: RFK Jr. to Oust Advisory Panel on Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs

How Long Before Hegseth Gets Canned?

WaPo: Hegseth team told to stop polygraph tests after complaint to White House

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See Ya Next Week

I’m off for a few days to raft the Colorado River through the lower Grand Canyon with my three brothers. I’m a little leery of the hike down Wednesday, where the bottom of the canyon is forecast to be 110 degrees Fahrenheit, especially since I clumsily broke a toe last month. It’ll be fiiine.

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