Professional headshot of a woman in a red top, representing Veterans Education Success, an organization focused on supporting veterans' educational achievements.

Professional headshot of a woman in a red top, representing Veterans Education Success, an organization focused on supporting veterans' educational achievements.

A left-wing group, which purports to be a bipartisan veteran advocacy group, is attempting to infiltrate the Trump Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), according to former and current White House officials.  

The group, Veterans Education Success (VES), which claims to “advance higher education success for veterans, service members, and military families, and to protect the integrity and promise of the GI Bill® and other federal postsecondary education programs,” is bankrolled by a far-left billionaire and led by a rabid Trump-hating leftist with a shady history.

A former White House official is calling on the Trump VA to “cut all ties with VES,” pointing to its funding and leadership. “Veterans Education Success is a Democrat-run advocacy group posing as a veterans organization,” the source said. “This group operates against the rank-and-file veterans who voted for this administration and its agenda.”

This comes after VES signed onto a letter in March, demanding that VA Secretary Doug Collins “reinstate the monthly GI Bill stakeholder meeting” with VES and other groups. It argues that the VA’s plans to hold future meetings “as needed” is insufficient. “This approach falls short of the level of transparency and collaboration that has historically benefited both the Department and the stakeholders who work daily with GI Bill beneficiaries, and with veterans using other education benefits provided by the VA,” the group says, attempting to expand its influence over the VA.

The letter further argues that “Reinstating the monthly GI Bill stakeholder meeting would restore an essential line of communication between the Department and the partners who work every day with GI Bill beneficiaries.”

“Regular engagement is necessary to ensure transparency, address operational concerns promptly, and maintain confidence in the administration of veterans’ education benefits,” it claims.

Meanwhile, the group is lobbying Congress aggressively to implement its agenda, submitting testimony on multiple occasions since Trump took office. They’ve also worked to oppose several items in Trump’s agenda, including the One Big Beautiful Bill spending package, VA workforce cuts, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s reforms to the Department of Education.

A current White House official said in a statement, “VES is a disgraced organization, and it’s shameful that the Biden VA continued working with Carrie Wofford after she refused to cooperate with federal investigators. Doug Collins deserves a lot of credit for turning a new leaf and keeping these fraudulent Never-Trumpers at arm’s length.”

VES was previously the subject of a Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation, which found that Charmain Bogue, former executive director of the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Education Service, violated ethics rules by participating in matters involving VES while her husband, Barrett Bogue, worked as a consultant for the group. Rather than cooperate with the OIG’s investigation, Bogue resigned from the VA in January 2022, according to the IG report.

According to the report, Bogue’s husband was paid exorbitant amounts by VES, all while the group knew of the conflict:

VES paid Mr. Bogue $5,000 per month, as their contract specified, between November 2018 and November 2020. However, in December 2020, after VES decided to terminate the contract at the end of the year, VES made a lump sum payment of $35,000 to Mr. Bogue. The OIG analysis of budget materials produced by VES revealed that, inclusive of this lump sum, the total payments by VES to Mr. Bogue in 2020 exceeded the budgeted amount by $30,000

VES President Carrie Wofford “did not cooperate with the OIG’s requests for interviews,” the report states. Wofford further endorsed Charmain Bogue for a White House role and shopped her resume “for consideration as potential presidential appointees to the staff of multiple congressional offices.”

Wofford, the founder of VES, is a Clinton White House alumni and rabid Trump hater. Wofford also worked closely with the Obama White House and ran an in-house think tank for the Democratic Caucus under Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, according to a biography from the Postsecondary National Policy Institute.

Wofford has also been publicly attacking Trump with unhinged Twitter rants for years, as far back as 2016.

This includes:

  • Calls for veterans to “oppose Trump” in August 2016.
  • Accusing Trump of empowering the KKK and neo-Nazis
  • suggesting his criticism of Don Lemon is rooted in racism
  • Claiming Trump is “ignoring” Puerto Rico in a “dog whistle to appeal to White Supremacists” in 2017
  • Likening Trump to a “bratty” child, who could be managed only by Nancy Pelosi in 2019
  • Claiming Trump called neo-Nazis “very good people” in 2019 

VES has also received millions of dollars from Leftist billionaire megadonor John Arnold, who has given millions of dollars to pro-abortion groups, the SPLC, Black Lives Matter-adjacent groups advocating to defund the police, and anti-gun groups.

“They are bankrolled by Arnold Ventures, a left-wing billionaire who funds soft-on-crime policies, gun-control campaigns, and Planned Parenthood. VES’s President, Carrie Wofford, has never served a day in uniform and suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the former White House official said.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Shady Anti-Trump Group Funded by Leftist Billionaire Donor Seeks to Infiltrate Trump VA appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.