Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration is moving to strip tax exemptions from a list of nonprofits and unions in what tax law experts call a blatantly illegal use of the IRS for political revenge and retribution. The scheme is getting more attention the same week Capital Research Center, the opposition slop shop that keeps feeding Congressional Republicans material for their nonprofit crackdown, published another one of their deeply unserious hit pieces, this one attacking…Olivia Rodrigo. Meanwhile, amidst the Trump Family’s historic profiteering off the presidency, a new poll finds Americans see government corruption as more widespread than at any point in the last 20 years.
Trump Administration Preps Illegal IRS Crackdown on Nonprofits and SEIU
The Trump administration is preparing to try to strip tax-exempt status from a slate of nonprofits and unions, led by Open Society Foundations, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the SEIU. The push leans on a 2025 executive order supposedly targeting groups the administration claims have a “substantial illegal purpose,” the same vague pretext Congressional Integrity Project has tracked all year as cover for going after the administration’s critics. A 1998 law makes it illegal for a president or his staff to direct the IRS to investigate a specific taxpayer, and legal experts say this effort is unlikely to survive court review. That may be beside the point. The government’s ultimate goal is scaring large foundations into pulling back funding from the civil society groups that work to defend ordinary Americans from this administration’s repeated abuses of power.
Capital Research Center Trades Nonprofit Attacks For Deeply Unserious Hit Piece On Olivia Rodrigo
Capital Research Center, the same partisan outfit that has spent the year supplying Congressional Republicans with talking points to attack nonprofits, published an article attacking Olivia Rodrigo this week for supporting Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights. It is a telling admission of what CRC’s “research” actually is: partisan, unserious hit pieces MAGA Republicans cite to justify defunding and investigating groups they disagree with. Those in the United States Congress and the media should think twice before platforming people who spend their time going after a 23-year-old singer for headlining a benefit concert.
New Poll: Nearly 9 in 10 Americans Say Government Corruption Is Widespread
And it’s no wonder why. This administration has secretly awarded a $500 million no-bid contract to build Trump his golden ballroom, cut a billion-dollar Kazakhstan mining deal that will enrich Trump’s sons, and is building a Trump Tower project in the country of Georgia with a company co-owned by a Russian oligarch. Against that backdrop, a new Gallup poll reported by Semafor finds that almost nine in ten Americans now believe corruption in government is widespread, the highest share in two decades and up 10 points in the last year alone. Voters are watching an administration that profiteers off the presidency while using the IRS to target its critics, and they are drawing the obvious conclusion.
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