Maybe @amprog got the facts wrong. Maybe troop presence in my old hometown of DC reduced crime, maybe it didn’t. President Trump is free to make his case with the biggest bully pulpit in the world. What he must not do is threaten the donors who helped make their reporting possible. When a president suggests that people may be sued simply for supporting an organization that criticized him, the message is hard to miss: You may not be the speaker, but backing the speaker can make you a target too. As the president of a donor-supported organization that regularly criticizes people in power, this one hits especially close to home. Organizations like @theFIREorg can only do their work because people are willing to support them, including when that work is unpopular. That kind of threat can do enormous damage without a single lawsuit ever succeeding. It encourages people to withdraw support, or avoid controversial organizations altogether. In other words, it can shrink the space for dissent by making association itself feel risky. The government should not be in the business of making people afraid to support its critics. Whatever your politics, the First Amendment principle here should be easy.