More than 100 liberal philanthropies and institutions have issued a letter condemning “acts of political violence” and pre-emptively opposing an expected Trump administration crackdown on ideologically left-leaning funding in the wake of the death of Charlie Kirk last week.
The groups, including the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, denounced the recent murders of Kirk and of Melissa Hortman in Minnesota, saying such acts “have no place in our democracy”.
The letter – published on Medium – said: “Our country is built on the premise that everyone has the right to express themselves, even when others don’t agree with or like what they say. No one should fear for their safety simply for expressing their views.”
It went on to warn that “organizations should not be attacked for carrying out their missions or expressing their values in support of the communities they serve.
“We reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms, like freedom of speech and the freedom to give. Attempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans.”
The statement comes after officials in the Trump administration signaled a potential crackdown on unnamed left-leaning groups it claims promote violence and terrorism.
Standing in as host of the Charlie Kirk Show podcast on Monday, JD Vance said that “leftwing extremism” was “part of the reason” Kirk was assassinated last week.
“We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of leftwing extremism that has grown up over the last few years and, I believe, is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet,” the vice-president said.
Vance called out the “generous tax treatment” that Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation receive, pointing to a report in the Nation, titled Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning, that he claimed was used to justify Kirk’s death and part of a campaign to incite violence against conservatives.
“I read a story in the Nation magazine about my dear friend Charlie Kirk,” Vance said during the podcast. “George Soros’ Open Society Foundation funds this magazine, as does the Ford Foundation and many other wealthy titans of the American progressive movement.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, the White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, claimed that Kirk’s final message to him called for a coordinated effort against unnamed leftwing groups accused of promoting violence. Miller pledged that the federal government would use “every available resource” to dismantle them.
A senior White House official told the Washington Post it was compiling a list of “leftwing organizations” that it says are linked to political violence but had not decided on what actions it may seek to take.
Bhaskar Sunkara, the president of the Nation, said on X that the publication had never received funds from the Open Society Foundations. Both the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation said they do not currently fund the Nation. A spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations called Vance’s accusations “disgraceful” and said the group’s work was “entirely peaceful and lawful”.
The author of the opinion piece, Elizabeth Spiers, later said her article “explicitly stated that no one should ever be killed for their views” and suggested Vance either misunderstood her piece or was deliberately misrepresenting her words.
In her article, Spiers described Kirk as “an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist who often wrapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct”.
The dispute comes as the administration seeks to bind itself tightly to Kirk’s legacy. Trump, Vance and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, are expected to travel to Arizona for Kirk’s stadium-set memorial service on Sunday.
The agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, are also expected to attend.
The letter published on Wednesday now seeks to defuse the conflict between the administration and progressive philanthropies and non-profits by joining together to form a collective front that has eluded other institutions and businesses, including universities and law firms, that have come under administration pressure.
Signatories to the letter, include the MacArthur Foundation; the Knight Foundation; the Omidyar Network, funded by the eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar; and the Schmidt Family Foundation, supported by the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
“At a moment that is fragile and fraught, we must rise to the higher standard we all collectively desire,” the letter concluded.
“Now is a moment for leadership that drives unity rather than sows further division. Our organizations will continue focusing on helping people across all backgrounds, geographies, ideologies, and belief systems, to heal, thrive, and live peacefully together, protected by the freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution.”
