The Privatization of Tyranny: Erik Prince, Donald Trump, and the Mercenary Threat Within

A dark political illustration of a cracked traffic circle with shattered street signs reading “Truth” and “Justice,” overshadowed by a towering faceless figure made of U.S. dollar bills. Symbolizes privatized warfare, corruption, and unaccountable power. — Privatized Warfare and the Fall of Truth Symbolic Illustration of Power and Profit

This article exposes how Donald Trump and Erik Prince’s alliance threatens to bring privatized military power onto U.S. soil. From Nisour Square to American cities, their partnership could turn mercenaries into enforcers of authoritarian control.

On September 16, 2007, Baghdad’s Nisour Square erupted in machine-gun fire. Seventeen Iraqi civilians, among them women and children, were slaughtered in broad daylight. This massacre, known grimly as Baghdad’s Bloody Sunday, was not the work of insurgents or even of American soldiers. It was carried out by private forces—hired guns under contract with Blackwater Worldwide, the secretive mercenary army built and commanded by Erik Prince.

Blackwater’s Bloody Trail

Not long before this tragedy, I had read Jeremy Scahill’s book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. – https://civilheresy.com/worlds most powerful mercenary army Scahill laid bare the disturbing truth: Prince was no ordinary ex–Navy SEAL. He was heir to a fortune, a scion of the billionaire Prince–DeVos dynasty, and a man who decided that warfare itself could be privatized and sold on the open market. His sister, Betsy DeVos, would later become Donald Trump’s Education Secretary—a woman with neither the experience nor the inclination to strengthen public schools, but rather to dismantle them. One sibling gutted education, the other commodified violence. Both were born to wealth and both wielded it as a weapon.

Blackwater has since changed names more often than a fugitive on the run—Xe Services, Academi, and now Constellis—but its business model has never wavered: killing for hire. Prince’s forces answer to no flag and no law, only to contracts. They are staffed largely by well-paid ex-military, armed with the most advanced weaponry and aircraft, and stationed in training compounds across the United States. By Prince’s own admission, Blackwater was—and remains—the largest private military corporation in the world.

Nor has Prince confined his services to America’s interests. His connections have been documented with Russia’s Wagner Group, the same paramilitary outfit that helped Moscow in its brutal war against Ukraine. Yet at the same time, Blackwater contractors have been embedded in U.S. operations from the Pentagon to the CIA. They know our bases, our intelligence infrastructure, and our vulnerabilities. In 2012, under the Obama administration, Blackwater admitted to federal crimes ranging from illegal arms exports to the possession of unlicensed machine guns. The firm paid tens of millions in fines—chump change, essentially the cost of doing business. Prince’s empire was not just a private military but a weapons-running operation.

Trump and the Mercenary Threat

And here the story converges with Donald Trump. During Trump’s first term, Prince was given near-unfettered access, pressing his influence inside the Pentagon, CIA, and even the State Department. By the end of that term, officials grew alarmed that Prince was using his White House connections not to serve U.S. interests, but to secure contracts worldwide. He was pushed to the margins. Yet, as Trump clawed his way back to power, Prince returned—this time with even fewer restraints. Reports now place him in communication with senior officials at Homeland Security, the State Department, and the National Security Council. He has ties in El Salvador, where detention and deportation programs mirror his appetite for “outsourced solutions.” Even ICE officers, masked and anonymous, evoke the methods of private contractors rather than accountable public servants.

So the question arises: if Trump, who has openly fantasized about deploying the U.S. military against American cities, finds the regular armed forces reluctant to carry out unlawful orders, who better to call than Erik Prince? His private army already operates bases and training facilities across this country. They possess tanks, aircraft, and the loyalty not to a Constitution but to the paycheck. Such forces could sweep into American cities, occupy them, and even establish detention centers—or worse.

This is no idle fear. Recall the precedent: the Nisour Square killers, convicted of murder and manslaughter, were pardoned by Donald Trump in 2020. Men who gunned down children in a Baghdad traffic circle walked free because their loyalty had been useful. In January 2025, Trump issued 1,600 pardons to the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Can anyone seriously doubt that he would extend the same absolution to Prince’s mercenaries if they carried out his domestic crusades?

The warning signs are there. Erik Prince commands a private army for sale to the highest bidder. Donald Trump has made it clear he craves retribution, power unchecked, and the loyalty of forces unbound by law. The nightmare scenario is not hypothetical—it is the natural conclusion of their alliance.

And it all began, lest we forget, with a traffic circle in Baghdad where 17 innocents were cut down by men who believed themselves untouchable.

The Precedent Is Clear

This is not speculation. Recall:

In 2007, Blackwater gunned down innocents in Nisour Square.
In 2020, Trump pardoned those killers.
In 2025, he pardoned 1,600 Capitol insurrectionists.

Can anyone doubt he would extend absolution to Prince’s mercenaries if they carried out domestic crackdowns?

Why It Matters

This isn’t just about foreign wars. It’s about the privatization of violence itself. Erik Prince has built the means. Trump has declared the motive. And together, they pose a direct threat to democracy inside America’s borders.

Key Takeaways

Blackwater’s Nisour Square massacre proved the dangers of privatized warfare.
Erik Prince has built the world’s most powerful mercenary network, loyal to money.
His ties stretch from Russia’s Wagner Group to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Trump pardoned Blackwater killers and Capitol rioters, normalizing violence as loyalty.
Their alliance risks turning private armies against American citizens.