After 9/11, I served as a Navy SEAL in combat. We succeeded on the battlefield through leadership, selflessness, and honor. We also took an oath to defend the Constitution, fought for it, and some of us died for it.
For these reasons, I actively oppose the candidacy of former President Donald Trump and urge every American to vote against him. He shares nothing in common with the values that bound my teammates and our brothers and sisters across every branch of the U.S. military together at war. His disregard for the Constitution is clear, and his first time as commander-in-chief was disastrous. Trump should never again be near the world’s greatest military.
I especially urge Republican voters to see Trump for what he is. I come from a rural state, own firearms, hunt and fish, and roll my eyes at the extremes of the progressive left. But that pales in comparison to the damage a second Trump term could produce: more division at home, greater global instability, and no respite from his daily freakshow. Consider his past behavior.
A pair of former U.S. President Donald Trump sneakers are seen on display during a campaign rally at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 18.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Jan. 6 and “The Big Lie”: Trump lost the 2020 election but is still running a disinformation campaign claiming he won. He was the first U.S. president to never concede after losing, nor did he commit to a peaceful transfer of power. His attempt to halt the certification of Joe Biden‘s victory by whipping up a mob to attack the Capitol is a low point in American history. Not even in the Civil War were Confederate flags flown atop Capitol Hill. Trump launched a civilian coup attempt, no matter how poorly conceived and executed it was.
Mishandling classified information: Trump took Top-Secret documents from the White House and stored them in flimsy cardboard boxes at his Mar-a-Lago pleasure palace. The Department of Justice documented these facts, leading to criminal charges. Any member of the U.S. military or federal official who did this would be in Leavenworth prison.
No accountability: The first American to die in combat under Trump was SEAL Ryan Owens. While the mission in Yemen was planned during the Obama administration, Owens’ death occurred on Trump’s watch. Instead of taking responsibility as commander-in-chief, Trump blamed “the generals” and turned the tragedy into political theater at the State of the Union address.
Admiration for dictators: Trump fawns over Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. The U.S. Armed Forces stabilize the world by opposing dictators, terrorists, and war criminals like Hitler, Mussolini, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden. Trump is unfit to lead this force on principle, in no small part because he frequently fantasizes about misusing the U.S. military to punish those he perceives as domestic enemies.
Disrespect for service and sacrifice: Trump insults Arlington National Cemetery, Gold Star families, and war heroes like John McCain. He has called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” evaded military service during Vietnam by faking bone spurs, and once referred to his sexual exploits as his personal Vietnam. He’s uncomfortable around veterans, even telling his chief of staff to keep wounded veterans away from his events because they make him “look bad.” The list goes on and on.
Enough is enough. Veterans, a voting bloc of 17 million, are uniting against Trump. We traditionally support Republican candidates, but polls show a tipping point, especially among post-9/11 veterans and active-duty personnel.
This opposition is growing. Our research has documented veteran protests against Trump in 25 states since 2016. I joined this movement not long after Trump took office.
In 2017, I had left the Navy, turned to a new career as an emergency medicine doctor, and was enjoying a life of quiet citizenship as a father to three daughters. But Trump’s behavior was so appalling that I took $500 and launched a volunteer political action committee called Veterans for Responsible Leadership to promote “integrity and rational thought in politics.”
In the last election cycle, we highlighted Trump’s dereliction of duty in a viral video. As a nonpartisan organization, we endorsed candidates—mostly veterans—from across the political spectrum.
This year, in swing states, we’ve used small-dollar donations to fund billboards in Trump-voting counties. Our goal was to get rural MAGA voters thinking.
Other grassroots efforts like ours have sprung up—veterans who know their oath to defend the Constitution never ends. Unlike more established veterans’ groups, these organizations are compelled to action, like the progressive group Common Defense.
Earlier this year, we joined forces with Common Defense in North Carolina to seek a pledge for election integrity from Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, asking her to respect the 2024 results and renounce violent rhetoric. She declined and we were thrown out of the North Carolina state GOP convention.
Before Trump, every single U.S. president had either political or military experience. While many had flaws, none had Trump’s total lack of leadership, selflessness, and honor.
America’s veteran community knows Trump shares nothing in common with the millions who have shed blood to defend our country on the battlefields of Yorktown, Antietam, Omaha Beach, Landing Zone X-ray, or Helmand Province. We suspect he will feel it in spades on Nov. 5.
Dan Barkhuff is the president and founder of Veterans for Responsible Leadership. He is an emergency medicine physician, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the U.S. Naval Academy, and an ex-Navy SEAL with eight years of service and combat deployments.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
