'Damn him': Ex-Tea Party lawmaker goes nuclear on Trump after troops shot

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) blasted Donald Trump on Friday over the death of Sarah Beckstrom, the West Virginia National Guard member who was fatally shot near the White House earlier this week.

Walsh – once a Tea Party congressman and now an outspoken Trump critic – said the 20-year-old soldier should never have been stationed in the nation’s capital to begin with.

“Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom should be alive. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe should not be in a hospital fighting for his life,” Walsh wrote in a searing post on X. “There’s no f-----g reason for National Guard troops to be in DC. There’s no f-----g reason at all. There never has been.”

He added: “Damn Trump. Damn him.”

Beckstrom was one of two National Guard members shot in a Nov. 26 ambush-style shooting in Washington, D.C., according to media reports. Both members had been serving in D.C. since August as a part of Trump's so-called crackdown on crime.

Walsh and other Trump critics argue the continued presence of national guard troops is unnecessary and places young servicemembers in harm's way.