President Donald Trump's attacks on nonprofit organizations are a massive threat to society and the world as a whole, wrote a pair of NGO directors in a dire analysis published in Newsweek on Monday.
"Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) hosted a congressional hearing on June 5 to accuse NGOs — without merit — of pay-to-play schemes. The House majority's primary complaint about these NGOs is that they fund proposals the majority doesn't like," wrote Laleh Ispahani and Paul Raushenbush.
"The Trump administration is investigating private nonprofits' internal operations and may announce findings soon. It is cutting federal funding for nonprofit organizations. The House of Representatives just passed a new tax on philanthropies which, if enacted, will limit giving power. These are only the latest attacks on civil society. We are experiencing an escalation in authoritarian strategy and tactics."
Ispahani is the managing director of programs at the Open Society Foundations, a pro-democracy nonprofit founded by Hungarian-born billionaire and Holocaust survivor George Soros, a subject of frequent far-right conspiracy theories. Raushenbush heads up the Interfaith Alliance, a religious nonprofit that opposes Christian nationalism and other faith-based extremism.
"Civil society groups minister to their communities, influence policy, and protect vulnerable groups," they wrote. "They step in when the government cannot or will not act, filling the gaps that enable our communities to survive and thrive. And they help hold governments accountable — by encouraging independent thought, building resistance to unjust actions, and giving millions of Americans a voice."
For Trump and the GOP to be targeting these organizations, they continued, "is a power grab that threatens all nonprofits' ability to work in their own communities."
And the problem could become even worse if the GOP passes Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act that slashes taxes on the wealthy while gutting Medicaid and food stamps, they noted, because buried in that legislation is a provision that handcuffs judges from enforcing civil contempt charges when executive branch officials defy court orders.
The president's attack on nonprofits "must not be allowed to succeed in the U.S. We must defend civil society against authoritarian actions, even as we press for a fuller, more resilient, and more effective democracy and society," they concluded. "This is not about ideology, but rather the bedrock of our democracy. The freedom of speech, ideas, and participation in civic life must therefore be protected and preserved — and not for a powerful few, but for all."
