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Republican national security leaders were terrified Trump would win the election

March 2

On This Day In 2016


In pre-Trump times, America's Democratic and Republican parties could agree on basic sets of facts about the U.S. and our place in the world. 

 

There have always been national security disagreements, of course, but often they were marginal disputes over how to reach a commonly shared goal. That blissful era ended when Trump wandered onto the stage. 

 

Even before he won the GOP nomination, he was seen as an unprecedented threat to our national security and to our pre-eminent role in world affairs. Thus, OTDI 2016, 122 Republican national security officials signed an open letter noting their “obligation” to “work energetically to prevent the election of someone so utterly unfitted to the office.”   

 

Is anybody aware of a previous case in which so many Defense alums from the candidate’s own party begged Americans to vote against him? We’re not.


Our editorial comment: Their prescient wisdom still applies to 2024.

 

Their justifications are remarkable. Please click on it to give it a read


The open letter signed by 112 GOP national security experts


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Summary: GOP Defense chiefs urge vote against Trump

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