Trump promised to fix the VA after years of Democrat scandals left veterans waiting to die.
Now a Democrat operative is trying to push her billionaire-funded group back inside Doug Collins' VA.
What investigators found the last time her group had access to veterans' benefits explains why Collins should slam the door.
GI Bill Watchdog Caught in a VA Ethics Scandal Has a New Target
Carrie Wofford runs Veterans Education Success, a group that bills itself as a bipartisan veterans advocacy organization. She founded it after stints at the Clinton White House, Harry Reid's Senate Democratic Caucus, and the Obama White House.
The veteran Democrat political operative has never served a day in uniform.
Veterans Education Success bills itself as a watchdog for the GI Bill and veterans' education benefits.
In 2022, the VA's Office of Inspector General caught her group at the center of an ethics scandal. The investigation found that Charmain Bogue, former executive director of the Veterans Benefits Administration's Education Service, violated ethics rules by handling VA matters involving VES while her husband sat on VES's payroll.
The contract called for $5,000 a month, paid to Barrett Bogue from November 2018 through November 2020. When VES cut him loose at year's end, they handed him a parting $35,000 lump sum – $30,000 more than the budget allowed, with no contractual basis for the payment.
Senator Chuck Grassley demanded answers. The OIG investigated. When investigators asked Wofford to sit for an interview, she refused.
Bogue resigned from the VA in January 2022 before the probe was completed – a move that short-circuited the investigation and left critical questions permanently unanswered.
Biden's VA kept working with Wofford anyway.
Arnold Ventures Billionaire Is Bankrolling This Anti-Trump Veterans Group
VES doesn't run on dues from veterans. It runs on millions from Arnold Ventures, the philanthropic operation of leftist billionaire John Arnold.
Arnold Ventures funds abortion-on-demand organizations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Lives Matter-adjacent groups pushing to defund police, and gun control campaigns across the country.
A former White House official who exposed VES saidy: "They are bankrolled by Arnold Ventures, a left-wing billionaire who funds soft-on-crime policies, gun-control campaigns, and Planned Parenthood."
That's who's bankrolling the group now demanding a seat inside the Trump VA.
VES signed onto a letter in March demanding that Secretary Doug Collins reinstate monthly GI Bill stakeholder meetings. Collins had moved to schedule future meetings "as needed" – a reasonable call for a secretary reforming a bloated agency from the ground up. VES called it a threat to "transparency."
The group has also submitted testimony to Congress opposing the One Big Beautiful Bill, VA workforce cuts, and Linda McMahon's education reforms.
This is not a veterans group. It's a Democrat policy operation using veterans as cover.
Doug Collins Is Keeping This Disgraced Group Away From the VA – For Now
A current White House official confirmed that "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."
The official credited Collins for turning the page: "Doug Collins deserves a lot of credit for turning a new leaf and keeping these fraudulent Never-Trumpers at arm's length."
A former White House official went further, calling on Collins to "cut all ties with VES" entirely and calling the group out for operating "against the rank-and-file veterans who voted for this administration and its agenda."
Wofford spent a decade on social media calling for veterans to "oppose Trump," accusing him of empowering the KKK and neo-Nazis, and likening him to a bratty child only Nancy Pelosi could manage.
The veterans who voted for Trump in 2024 did not vote for Carrie Wofford to lobby against their VA from the inside.
Collins was confirmed 77-23 with broad bipartisan support to fix a department that failed veterans for years. The last thing that mission needs is a Clinton-connected, billionaire-funded operative demanding monthly access while killing every reform on his agenda.
The pattern isn't complicated. A Democrat operation wraps itself in veteran branding, gains access inside a Republican administration, stonewalls investigators, and waits for the next Democrat to let them back in.
Doug Collins should end it permanently.
Sources:
- Jordan Conradson, "EXCLUSIVE: Shady Anti-Trump Group Funded by Leftist Billionaire Donor Seeks to Infiltrate Trump VA," The Gateway Pundit, July 3, 2026.
- "Former Education Service Executive Violated Ethics Rules and Her Duty to Cooperate Fully with the OIG," VA Office of Inspector General, March 24, 2022.
- Matthew Feehan, "Veterans Affairs OIG Calls for Full Investigation into $10.8 Million in Improper Incentives," Townhall, May 12, 2024.
