WASHINGTON — First the nation’s top law firms. Then its premier universities. Now, President Donald Trump is leaning on the advocacy groups that underpin U.S. civil society.
Trump said Thursday that the administration is looking at the tax-exempt status not just of Harvard, but environmental groups and specifically the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. It could be a devastating financial blow to the nonprofit organizations — and his perceived political foes.
The president’s remarks, during an event at the White House, began to confirm what advocacy groups have been quietly warning: Trump’s campaign of retribution is coming next for them.
“It’s supposed to be a charitable organization,” Trump said about CREW, in particular. “The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that. We’re looking at a lot of things.”
Trump and his team have been working their way through the nation’s institutions, threatening to chisel away at the independence and autonomy of the law firms, college campuses and now advocacy groups — or putting them at risk of losing their federal funds or professional livelihood.
It’s all coming quickly, not yet 100 days into the new administration, and in ways historically unheard of in this country for their speed and scope. And it’s sending shock waves reverberating throughout the American system.
“It’s a sad day in this country when organizations that provide critical services to their communities are under attack from their government,” said Cole Leiter, executive director of the advocacy group Americans Against Government Censorship. “No administration, Republican or Democratic, should be able to weaponize the weight of the government against their political enemies.”
On their own, Trump’s actions are an almost daily list of executive pronouncements from the White House. The Trump administration has issued orders against the law firms that had cases or attorneys perceived to be against him, and it has made demands of the universities over their rules around campus activism.
Thursday brought potentially more to the stack: Trump singled out CREW, the watchdog group whose founder, Norm Eisen, played a pivotal role in Trump’s first impeachment, and the environmental groups that largely stand at odds with his “drill baby drill” agenda.
“Tax exempt status — I mean, it’s a privilege. It’s really a privilege, and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard,” Trump said. “We’ll be making some statements. It’s a big deal.”
But taken together, the executive orders and actions and memos are making one thing clear: The Trump administration is eager to test new ways to flex executive power, and dare the courts and Congress to intervene. And there’s more expected to come.
Environmental, immigration and civil society advocacy groups have been bracing for potential threats to their tax-exempt status, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it. The person said some expect Trump might start taking action against the environmental groups on Earth Day, which is Tuesday.
These are the largely nonprofit organizations and groups, many based in Washington, advocating for various communities, constituencies and causes.
Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said environmental groups have heard that the Trump administration is preparing executive orders targeting the tax status of environmental groups that work on climate change, as well as that of any foundations that fund their work.
“Trump is marshaling all the power of government to punish his perceived enemies,” Suckling said. “We’ve got a crack legal team and will have him in court within 24 hours. We’re ready and waiting for him to come at us.”
CREW has been a leading ethics group in Washington, with Trump long the subject of its probes.
Ahead of the 2024 election, the group was part of the legal effort to disqualify Trump from regaining the White House under the 14th Amendment, in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. More recently, CREW sued over the firing of federal workers by Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency.
“For more than 20 years, CREW has exposed government corruption from politicians of both parties who violate the public trust and has worked to promote an ethical, transparent government,” said Jordan Libowitz, the organization’s vice president.
Trump’s attacks on civil society have created a climate that is potentially chilling for the organizations in question — but they have had mixed results.
Five of the major law firms and Trump reached a deal in which they agreed to provide a combined hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono counsel to causes the administration says it supports. The firms are trying to avoid various sanctions, including terminated federal contracts, federal employment investigations over diversity hiring and others.
While Columbia University agreed to the Trump administration’s demands to overhaul its rules for public protests rather than risk billions of dollars in lost federal funds, Harvard rebuffed the administration and now faces a $2 billion federal funding freeze and the threat to its tax-exempt status.
The tax-exempt status allows nonprofit organizations to receive donations that are crucial to their financial bottom line. Changing that could, in some situations, lead to calamity.
“Good governance groups are the heart of a healthy democracy,” Libowitz said. “We will continue to do our work to ensure Americans have an ethical and accountable government.”
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Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed to this report.
