Notorious private security contractor Erik Prince is working his way back into Donald Trump's orbit, and he's gained a pair of key allies as he pitches proposals that would benefit his company.
More than a dozen current and former administration officials and sources close to Prince told CNN that he's gained traction in Trump's second administration, after he was banned in the first administration from inside the Pentagon and CIA by officials uncomfortable with his ideas for deploying mercenary forces to hot spots around the world and felt he pushed legal boundaries in his bids for government contracts.
“He is constantly presenting plans to fix national security issues with his company,” said a source familiar with Prince’s efforts.
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Prince's, whose private contracting firm Blackwater set off international outrage after a deadly shooting in 2007 that killed Iraqi civilians, has recently proposed to senior Trump officials to use private military contractors to fight Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to three sources familiar with the matter, which sources said resembled his previous plans for similar operations in Afghanistan and Somalia.
“He has presented the plan numerous times but it hasn’t gone anywhere,” said one of the sources.
Prince has been a frequent visitor to the Pentagon, where he's gained a powerful ally in defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and is vying for spots on two key defense advisory boards, according to two sources, and he's also a participant in group text chats with senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security, State Department and the White House National Security Council.
“Every crisis, he finds a way to poke his nose in,” said one source.
Prince served as a character witness for national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard during her tumultuous confirmation process, giving him another key ally who oversees spy agencies that consider him "radioactive," according to one senior official, due to his “baggage from his time running Blackwater and conflicts of interest later.”
Prince has been proposing since before Trump's election win a plan to carry out mass deportations by deputizing private security contractors, hiring retired ICE and CBP officers and law enforcement officers, as well as military veterans, to round up undocumented migrants, but some former officials are concerned about his plans.
“This isn’t just bad policy – it’s a dangerous, un-American escalation,” said Jason P. Houser, former ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration. “Mass deportation plans handed to for-profit mercenaries with a record of failure and abuse abroad will devastate our communities.”
