Trump Sends West Virginia National Guard to D.C. Without Consulting Mayor Bowser

President Donald Trump has doubled down on his federal intervention in Washington, D.C., calling in reinforcements from West Virginia’s National Guard. The decision, announced August 16, marks an intensification of Trump’s so-called “Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful” campaign, a project already criticized for its political theater and disregard for local autonomy.

The deployment—300 to 400 West Virginia Guard troops—comes just days after Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act to seize temporary control of the District’s police. This was the first time any president has used that provision. Combined with D.C.’s own Guard, the new arrivals bring the total number of federally-controlled troops patrolling the capital to more than 800.

The move was made without the consent of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has called the intervention “unsettling and unprecedented.” Attorney General Brian Schwalb has already filed suit to block Trump’s attempt to install a federally appointed “emergency police commissioner.” Both argue the administration has violated the spirit, if not the letter, of Home Rule.

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A Manufactured Emergency—And a Convenient Distraction

The federal escalation follows the sensationalized “Big Balls” assault—an incident Trump quickly used to justify invoking sweeping emergency powers. As Higher Education Inquirer previously reported, Trump has leaned heavily on this case to stir fear and project strength, despite the fact that violent crime in D.C. is currently at a 30-year low.

But there’s another layer: the timing. Trump’s deployment of out-of-state Guard troops comes as media scrutiny of the Epstein case intensifies, including renewed focus on how elite institutions enabled and benefited from Epstein’s money. Harvard, MIT, and other universities took his donations, gave him influence, and in some cases provided a veneer of legitimacy to a man whose connections to Trump and other powerful figures remain politically toxic.

The “crime emergency” narrative serves not only as a pretext for overriding D.C.’s fragile autonomy—it also provides the administration with a diversionary spectacle, drowning out scandals that link Trump to Epstein and, by extension, to the culture of impunity within higher education and elite philanthropy.

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Projection of Strength at Home, Weakness Abroad

Trump’s militarized display in the capital also serves as a contrast to his failure with Vladimir Putin over Alaska’s northern shipping lanes. As climate change opens new Arctic passages, Russia has aggressively asserted control. Trump’s administration has made bold promises to defend U.S. interests, but negotiations with Putin have yielded little. Instead, Russia continues to expand its military and commercial footprint while the U.S. presence stagnates.

Unable to project strength against Putin in the Arctic, Trump has turned to the symbolic occupation of Washington, D.C., where he can choreograph troops and police on American streets. It is authoritarian theater at home to mask diplomatic impotence abroad.

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State Militias in the Capital

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey framed the troop deployment as an act of patriotism, fulfilling a request from the Trump White House. But for many in D.C., the symbolism is chilling: a president calling on a neighboring state’s militia to police residents of a city that already lacks voting representation in Congress.

This arrangement underscores the fragility of D.C.’s democratic status. Residents now face not just local disenfranchisement, but the visible presence of outsiders in military fatigues patrolling their neighborhoods—all while national attention is steered away from elite corruption and foreign policy failure.

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The Bigger Picture

Trump’s willingness to override the District’s autonomy fits neatly into a broader pattern of authoritarian spectacle. The militarized presence on D.C.’s streets may reassure his supporters, but it raises grave questions about precedent. If a president can federalize a city’s police and import out-of-state Guard troops in a moment of historically low crime, what is to stop him from doing so elsewhere?

And just as important: how many of these “emergencies” are staged diversions to shield him from accountability—not only for his political record, but for his ties to Epstein and his inability to stand up to Putin in Alaska?

For HEI, this story is not just about Washington. It is about how crisis politics and higher education’s complicity in elite networks of power intersect to protect the wealthy and connected, while ordinary citizens and students are left with militarized streets, unpayable debts, and shrinking democratic rights.

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Sources

• Reuters: West Virginia governor to deploy National Guard troops to U.S. capital

• Politico: West Virginia deploys hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington

• Washington Post: D.C. to see more federal troops as Trump pushes to extend emergency

• Time: White House backs off ‘hostile takeover’ of D.C. police after lawsuit

• HEI: Trump Exploits the ‘Big Balls’ Assault

EANGUS: Nonprofit Shill for University of Phoenix

The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS), which claims to advocate for enlisted National Guard members, has long presented itself as a supporter of military families and career advancement. However, its ongoing partnership with for-profit institutions like the University of Phoenix raises serious questions about whose interests the organization truly serves.

On August 13, the University of Phoenix announced the winners of the 2025 EANGUS Future Phoenix Scholarship, which awards full tuition for bachelor’s or master’s programs to current enlisted National Guard servicemembers and their immediate family members. The winners—Nitasa Freund, Isabella Hunsicker, and John Wellington—were celebrated in press materials that emphasized the school’s commitment to veteran students.

University of Phoenix framed the scholarships as a way to “empower our members to turn their service-driven experience into academic achievement,” while EANGUS Executive Director John Gipe described the partnership as helping military members “step forward not just for the individual, but for the communities they continue to serve.”

But the reality behind these programs is far less altruistic. University of Phoenix, owned by the for-profit Apollo Global Management, has a long history of predatory recruitment practices targeting military and veteran populations. The school has faced multiple federal investigations and lawsuits over deceptive marketing, inflated job placement claims, and aggressive enrollment tactics that funnel servicemembers into costly, high-debt programs.

EANGUS’s role in promoting scholarships to the University of Phoenix illustrates how military associations can be co-opted by for-profit educational interests. By lending credibility and direct access to servicemembers, EANGUS effectively functions as a shill, steering military personnel and their families toward programs that often prioritize corporate profit over educational quality or genuine career outcomes.

Scholarship recipients’ stories, highlighted in University of Phoenix press materials, are framed as evidence of success. Nitasa Freund, a National Guard Staff Sergeant, is pursuing a master’s in criminal justice; John Wellington, a 101st Signal Battalion Company First Sergeant, is returning to higher education after decades of service; and Isabella Hunsicker is studying psychology. These narratives, while compelling, mask the broader systemic risks associated with enrolling in high-cost for-profit programs that may saddle veterans with unmanageable debt.

For an organization that claims to represent the interests of enlisted service members, EANGUS’s alignment with a for-profit education juggernaut raises ethical concerns. Military families seeking higher education deserve advocacy that prioritizes transparency, quality, and long-term outcomes—not promotion of institutions with a documented history of exploiting the very population they claim to serve.

As for-profit colleges continue to target veterans and military families, it is incumbent on military associations, watchdogs, and policymakers to scrutinize partnerships that appear charitable on the surface but may perpetuate financial harm behind the scenes. EANGUS’s ongoing collaboration with University of Phoenix is a stark reminder that even well-intentioned organizations can become complicit in corporate profiteering when oversight and accountability are lacking.

Sources:

• University of Phoenix Press Release, August 13, 2025

• EANGUS Official Website

• Apollo Global Management, University of Phoenix corporate information

• Government Accountability Office and Department of Education reports on for-profit colleges

Trump Exploits “Big Balls” Assault: Racialized Fear and Political Diversion

A violent D.C. attack becomes a national spectacle as Trump amplifies fear and racialized stereotypes—despite the fact the only juveniles in custody are a boy and girl from nearby Hyattsville, Maryland.

When Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, former Dogecoin executive, was brutally attacked in Washington, D.C. on August 3, the story might have been covered as a straightforward crime incident. Instead, former President Donald Trump turned it into a spectacle—leveraging the assault to reinforce racialized stereotypes, inflame political tensions, and divert attention from ongoing scrutiny over the Epstein case.

The Incident

Coristine and a female companion were targeted around 3:00 a.m. on Swann Street NW in Logan Circle by a group of roughly ten juveniles attempting a carjacking. Coristine suffered a concussion, a broken nose, and a black eye. His iPhone 16 was stolen. While police quickly intervened, only two of the juveniles—both 15-year-olds from Hyattsville, Maryland, a boy and a girl—were arrested. They were positively identified by the victims and charged with unarmed carjacking. The remaining eight suspects escaped.

Trump’s Rhetorical Spin

On his Truth Social platform, Trump posted a bloody photo of Coristine and labeled the attackers as “local thugs,” framing them as emblematic of out-of-control crime in D.C. He called for juveniles to be tried as adults and renewed his demand for a federal takeover of the District’s justice system.

The rhetoric is striking. Without releasing any confirmed information about the suspects’ race, Trump’s language taps into long-standing racialized fears about crime in urban areas, implicitly suggesting a connection to Black youth despite the fact the only two arrested were suburban Maryland teenagers. At the same time, the post functioned as a diversion. Amid ongoing media attention on the Epstein case, Trump amplified a violent story in D.C., steering coverage toward crime and juvenile offenders and away from scrutiny of his and his allies’ networks.

Media Reinforcement

Coverage by major outlets, while reporting the facts, often amplified Trump’s framing. Headlines repeatedly used charged language like “brutal attack” and “teenage thugs,” with images emphasizing the victim’s injuries. This coverage, combined with Trump’s own posts, reinforced a narrative that criminalized unnamed youths and fed into racialized assumptions about crime in D.C., even though the only teens in custody were a boy and girl from a nearby Maryland suburb.

The Maryland Connection

The Hyattsville connection complicates Trump’s framing of the assault as a “local D.C.” problem. Hyattsville is roughly five to seven miles from Logan Circle, easily reached in under 20 minutes by car or about 30–40 minutes by public transit. Suburban teens, not city residents, were in custody, yet the political messaging treated the incident as emblematic of the District’s crime problem.

The Bigger Picture

Trump’s commentary follows a familiar pattern: amplifying violent incidents to stoke racialized fears and push law-and-order narratives, often while deflecting attention from scandals that directly involve him or his associates. The juvenile offenders’ race and identity remain officially unreported, highlighting the speculative and racially coded nature of Trump’s claims. Meanwhile, the other suspects remain at large, and the actual circumstances of the assault are far more complex than his posts suggest.

Framing Big Balls as a Victim 

The “Big Balls” assault illustrates how political figures can manipulate crime narratives. Trump’s rapid weaponization of the incident demonstrates a clear playbook: racialized language, selective emphasis, and distraction from politically sensitive scandals. As the Epstein fallout continues, such diversions may become more frequent—using high-profile assaults, real or perceived, as fodder for political theater.

Sources:

WiredFox 5 DC

The Daily Beast

CBS News

Washington Examiner