Hundreds of national security officials, ex-Cabinet members, Gold Star families endorse Trump
More than 400 national security and foreign policy officials, ex-Cabinet members, retired military officers and Gold Star families endorsed former President Trump on Thursday.
In an open letter organized by former National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien and former NSC Chief of Staff Alex Gray, the signatories condemn the "repeated failures" of the Biden-Harris administration's foreign policy and urged Americans to re-elect Trump.
"From a world at peace under President Trump, we are closer to a third world war than ever before under the Biden-Harris Administration," the letter states. "With multiple escalating wars around the world, an open border that allows terrorists to flood into the American homeland, and malign actors like China operating unabated, U.S. national security has been profoundly damaged by the failed policies of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden."
The endorsement was signed by several prominent officials from the Trump administration, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Attorney General Bill Barr, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, and many more.
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Eleven family members of the 13 American troops killed at Abbey Gate at Kabul's airport during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan also signed the letter, which praised Trump's foreign policy record in contrast to Biden's controversial actions.
"When President Trump took office, the war in Afghanistan had dragged on for almost 16 years. By February 2020, a peace agreement was reached, ensuring no American soldier was killed in combat until the end of the Trump Administration. This agreement held strong because the Taliban understood President Trump’s resolve and U.S. forces were prepared to ensure their compliance," the letter reads.
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"The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden-Harris Administration in 2021, led to the unnecessary deaths of thirteen brave American troops at Abbey Gate and left untold billions of dollars of high grade military equipment to the Taliban, making it the most well-armed terror organization in the world."
Additionally, 40 retired U.S. ambassadors, 75 retired senior military officers and several hundred officials from previous Republican administrations signed the letter, praising Trump's diplomatic efforts on cease-fire agreements between Turkey and Kurdish fighters in Syria and the Abraham Accords. The letter refers to Trump as a "peacemaker."
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"Securing peace is in the greatest tradition of American foreign policy and the Judeo-Christian principles upon which our nation was founded," the letter continues before quoting from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. "Jesus said, ‘blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be sons of God.’ (Matthew 5:9) Such is the legacy of the Trump Administration."
Writing on X, O'Brien said he was "honored" to join his colleagues from the Trump administration in "supporting a return to a ‘peace through strength’ foreign policy under President Trump."
Another signatory, Dr. Jerry Hendrix, former director of the Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Panel, said it "wasn't a hard decision" to attach his name to the letter.
"Trump had 1 of the more successful foreign policy presidencies since the Cold War," Hendrix wrote on X. "He ended sequestration. He invested in the Navy. The Biden-Harris admin has been one foreign policy debacle after another."
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.