Two Soldiers Down...And Millions in the Crosshairs

A step-by-step map of how two National Guardsmen become political ammunition in the hands of an authoritarian movement.

Two Soldiers Down...And Millions in the Crosshairs

A step-by-step map of how two National Guardsmen become political ammunition in the hands of an authoritarian movement.

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #662: Wednesday, November 26th, 2025

Author’s note:

Here’s the updated version. At the time I began writing this article…one of the sources I relied on reported that the two Guardsmen were dead… and I wrote the piece accordingly. After learning that they are, in fact, alive and in critical condition…I revised the article to accurately reflect their current status.

On November 26, 2025, two West Virginia National Guard members were shot just blocks from the White House near Farragut Square in Washington, D.C.

Let me be clear: this is a tragedy by any measure, and I am saddened by the suffering their families are enduring during the holidays.

A suspect was shot and taken into custody.

The White House and nearby buildings went into lockdown…helicopters overhead…streets sealed, travelers disrupted…Thanksgiving traffic snarled.

These soldiers were in D.C. because the Trump administration deployed thousands of Guard troops into the city back in August under the banner of a “crime emergency” and immigration crackdown…despite legal challenges and widespread criticism that this was an illegal militarization of the capital.

Today, those political decisions…built on hyped and exaggerated claims…resulted in two Guardsmen critically wounded in uniform near the seat of American government.

And right now…even as investigators are still sorting out basic facts…a second operation is already underway:

The operation to turn this tragedy into a club to beat the entire non-Trump America over the head.

This isn’t accidental.
It’s not random.
It’s not “people just reacting.”

It’s predictable psychology married to weaponized narrative. And if you don’t understand how this works…every time something like this happens…you and everyone you care about will get steamrolled by the same playbook.

So let’s walk through the machinery.

1. The “Sacred Victim” Switch: Turning Grief Into Obedience

In the American psyche, few images are as emotionally loaded as:

• A soldier in uniform

• Gunned down in “our” capital

• On the eve of a holiday

• While “protecting” us

That combination triggers a deep emotional circuit: reverence…grief…rage…a craving for someone to punish…and someone to obey.

Trump and his ecosystem understand this perfectly.

Within hours…Trump was online calling the shooter an “animal” and lavishing praise on the Guard and law enforcement as “truly Great People,” positioning himself as their ultimate protector.

That’s not venting.
That’s framing.

He’s doing three things simultaneously:

1. Sacralizing the victims. These aren’t just wounded soldiers…they become symbols.

2. Bonding himself to them. “I, as President… am with you.”

3. Defining who is “with” them and who is “against” them.

This is the Sacred Victim Switch:

Step 1: Turn real human suffering into a sacred symbol.
Step 2: Fuse that symbol to the Leader.
Step 3: Define dissent as sacrilege.

Once that switch flips, the next part sells itself:

“If you criticize Trump… the deployment… ‘law and order’… you’re basically disrespecting wounded soldiers.”

And that sets up the perfect conditions for backlash…not against the shooter…but against anyone who won’t kneel at Trump’s altar.

2. The Blood-to-Blame Pipeline: How One Shooter Becomes “All of You”

We don’t yet have a full shooter profile. Law enforcement is still gathering information.

But the biography of the shooter barely matters.

The propaganda pipeline works like this:

Isolate a fact that can be spun.

• Did he live in a blue city?

• Was he mentally ill?

• Was he undocumented?

• Did he post anything anti-Trump?

Inflate that fact into a cause.
“He was radicalized by the anti-Trump left.”
“This is what Democrat cities produce.”

Fuse that cause onto millions of people.
“People like them made this happen.”

Then pivot the finger toward the entire non-Trump America:

“You have blood on your hands.”

This isn’t logic.
It’s emotional alchemy.

One shooter → one story → one outgroup to punish.

3. The “Besieged Fortress” Frame: How Fear Creates Consent

Imagine being a Trump supporter hearing:

Two Guard members…shot…near the White House…during a deployment Democrats criticized.

The ready-made narrative is:

“See? They hate us. They hate Trump. They hate anyone who serves him.”

This is the Besieged Fortress frame:

We are under attack.
The threat is internal.
The enemy is the “other America.”

Once people feel besieged, they grant extraordinary power to whoever claims to be the fortress commander.

Fear → siege mindset → obedience.

From there, the backlash writes itself:

• More tolerance for crackdowns

• More labeling critics as “terror sympathizers”

• More willingness to punish “the other America”

4. The Availability Trap: One Bloody Afternoon as a Lifetime Memory

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has shown that vivid memories feel more true than statistics.

A shooting near the White House…
Soldiers on the ground…
Lockdowns…shouting…helicopters…
On Thanksgiving week…

This burns itself into memory.

So later…when Trump says:

“We’re in a crime emergency.”
“We need the Guard out there.”

People won’t recall data.
They’ll recall this moment.

That means every future debate about militarization is now joined by the silent presence of:

the wounded Guardsmen whose images will be invoked again and again.

5. The “Collective Guilt” Scam: Making You Answer for Someone Else’s Bullet

Healthy societies say:

“One person’s crime belongs to that person.”

Authoritarian movements despise this idea.

Collective guilt is too useful.

So they:

• Pick a shocking crime

• Attach it to an entire outgroup

• Demand endless condemnation

• Treat any hesitation as proof of guilt

“You people created this climate.”
“You people attacked the Guard.”

And soon, the threat emerges:

“If you don’t support Trump, more people will be shot…and it’ll be your fault.”

This provides psychological cover for:

• Smearing protestors

• Silencing journalists

• Targeting critics as “dangerous to soldiers”

6. The Policy Laundering Trick: Scrubbing Trump’s Fingerprints

This is the part they don’t want spoken out loud:

These Guardsmen wouldn’t have been standing on that corner if Trump hadn’t ordered a politically driven, legally contested deployment.

He didn’t pull the trigger.
But he created the environment.

Now watch the laundering:

• The shootings will be framed as proof Trump was “right.”

• Critics will be blamed for undermining morale.

• Legal objections will be painted as disrespect to the wounded.

Backlash turns upward rage (toward leaders who made reckless decisions) into sideways rage (toward neighbors who simply voted differently).

7. How This Becomes a Weapon Against Every Non-Trump American

If you’re:

• A Democrat

• An independent

• A Republican who broke ranks

• A journalist

• A protester

• A critic of militarization

…this tragedy is already being processed as ammunition to use against you.

Here’s how it shows up:

Moral blackmail:
“You keep trashing Trump… this is what happens.”

Online harassment:
Your posts will be flooded with images of the wounded Guardsmen.

Justifications for crackdowns:
Curfews.
Expanded “emergency powers.”
Federal policing.

Narrative groundwork for targeting dissent:
“You created the climate for this.”

Backlash doesn’t hit the shooter.
It hits you.

8. How to Inoculate Your Own Mind Against the Playbook

You can’t control Fox.
You can’t control Trump’s posts.
You can’t control cable news.

But you can inoculate yourself and everyone around you.

A. Lock in the actual chain of responsibility

• The shooter is responsible for the bullets.

• The administration is responsible for putting troops in harm’s way.

• Critics are responsible for none of this.

Repeat that calmly, relentlessly.

B. Refuse the “all of you” trap

Ask:

“Which specific person, doing which specific thing, are you talking about?”

Specifics kill propaganda.

C. Name the manipulation

“This is the same pattern…they’re using wounded soldiers as shields for political power.”

Once people notice the trick…it stops working.

9. What to Watch for in the Next 72 Hours

• How Trump frames the event

• How conservative media stretches the narrative

• How fast “explanations” appear

• The use of “these people”

Every time you see one, tag it:

“Ah. There’s the backlash machine.”

Recognition is immunity.

10. Refusing to Let Their Suffering Be Used Against the Country They Serve

Two Guardsmen were shot and are in critical condition.
Real families are living their worst nightmare tonight.

Whatever you think about the deployment or the man who ordered it, those families deserve better than to have their trauma turned into a political infomercial.

You can:

• Have deep empathy for the soldiers and their families

• Demand answers about reckless deployments

• Reject attempts to smear millions of Americans

All at the same time.

The backlash you’re about to see is not patriotism.
It’s opportunism.

Take a tragedy.
Add guilt.
Add fear.
Weaponize it against half the country.

You do not have to participate.

You can Hold Fast to something very simple:

Individual responsibility.
Shared concern.
Refusal to turn fellow citizens into an enemy collective just because a demagogue finds it convenient.

Because if you don’t—if you let this backlash logic stand—then every time a leader makes a reckless decision that gets someone shot, they’ll point the finger at you and say:

“It’s their fault. Punish them. Give me more power.”

That is how democracies die: not only in violence…but in the stories told afterward.

Tonight, two soldiers are fighting for their lives.
Tomorrow, the battle will be over what their suffering will be made to mean.

You can’t rewind what happened.
But you can damned well refuse to let this tragedy be used as a cudgel against the entire non-Trump America they were sworn to defend.

Hold fast. #HOLDFAST

Back soon,

-Jack

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