Liberal commentators blame Trump for National Guard shooting

Multiple left-wing commentators are blaming President Donald Trump on Wednesday for the shooting in Washington, D.C., that led to the death of U.S. National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom.

Individuals like liberal podcaster Wajahat Ali and author John Pavlovitz argued that the shooting of Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe on Wednesday only happened because of Trump's orders to station the National Guard in U.S. cities.

"Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are culpable for endangering the National Guard by putting them in harm's way," Pavlovitz wrote on X.

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The accusations came hours after 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly shot Beckstrom and Wolfe just blocks from the White House in what officials called a "targeted" attack.

Wolfe is still "fighting for his life," the president said Thursday, after announcing Beckstrom's death. Lakanwal is in custody and recovering in the hospital after being shot and wounded by other National Guard members.

Trump accused the Biden administration of failing to vet Lakanwal and other Afghan refugees who were brought to the U.S. during its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

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In a Truth Social post following the attack, Trump shared an image of Afghani refugees on board a U.S. plane, and stated, "This is part of the horrendous airlift from Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into our Country totally unvetted and unchecked. We will fix it, but will never forget what Crooked Joe Biden and his Thugs did to our Country!"

Biden administration officials at the time insisted that they had properly vetted the over 120,000 people who were evacuated during the period. Lakanwal reportedly had his asylum application approved in April 2025 under the Trump administration.

Liberals online insisted Trump's actions in deploying the National Guard were the reason the Guardsmen were shot. 

Ali wrote on X, "National Guard members should never have been deployed in Washington, DC. They deserve better. All of us do."

Liberal podcast host Jack Hopkins criticized Trump's judgment in placing troops in D.C.

He wrote, "There was no 'Emergency' situation with crime in DC. This stunt got a 20 year old young woman killed.  It. Got. A. Woman. Killed."

Frequent MS NOW guest and liberal commentator Dean Obeidallah shared a Daily Beast article on Bluesky which stated the U.S. government granted asylum to Lakanwal in April. 

"This attack was all Trump- from granting asylum to the shooter to putting West Virginia National Guard troops on streets of DC in harms way. Trump should RESIGN!" he said, commenting on the article.

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New Yorker writer Jane Mayer posted on X, "This is so tragic, so unnecessary, these poor guardsmen should never have been deployed. I live in DC and watched as they had virtually nothing to do but pick up trash. It was for political show and at what a cost."

Another widely followed account wrote on Bluesky, "Trump manufactured a crime wave, deployed the National Guard, two got shot, and it's somehow Biden's fault."

Trump did have one defender, with a caveat: The New York Times. The paper's liberal editorial board said the blame lay with the shooter alone, although it called Trump's National Guard use "outrageous."

"There will be Americans who note that this tragedy could have been averted if Ms. Beckstrom and Mr. Wolfe had not been needlessly deployed to Washington in August on the order of President Trump," the board wrote on Thursday. "No one, including the president, is responsible for this tragedy, except for its perpetrator. It should be possible to understand both that Mr. Trump's use of the National Guard has been outrageous and that the use did not cause this shooting."'

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

Trump called the shooting a crime against the entire country and said the "animal" who committed the murder would pay the "steepest possible price."