Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is desperately trying to prove that he has the majority of the military’s support.
He put out a list of 88 military endorsements on Tuesday, looking to show that he has support among the armed forces. With the anniversary of 9/11 coming on Sunday, he is looking to show that he would be the stronger commander-in-chief than Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
However, political pundits and career military officials are calling into question the list of endorsements that Trump put together. They feel that there are some glaring omissions that cannot be ignored.
For example, only ten percent of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s military advisory council appear on the list.
Other’s feel that there are not enough recognizable names that would give Trump some credibility within the community.
Retired Army Colonel Jack Jacobs spoke to NBC News about the problems with Trump’s list. He said:
“The fact that there aren’t any major names on the list — that it’s short — that’s what’s surprising. These are not big names.”
Retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey was also shocked by the lack of high ranking officials that appeared on Trump’s endorsement list. He assumed that he would have recognized more of the names since he grew up in the military community. He responded to NBC News’ request for comment and said:
“There’s almost no name on that list that I recognized.”
This lack of recognizable military support for Trump is significant. Republican presidential candidates typically receive overwhelming support from those in the military community.
Over 500 retired admirals and generals took out an ad in the Washington Times declaring their support for Governor Romney in the 2012 election. Romney also had 354 retired generals and admirals on his “military advisory council.”
Only 36 of Romney’s council appeared on Trump’s list of supporters. This signifies that Trump is well below the level of support that is typical of the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump is also receiving less money from those in the military community than any other Republican presidential nominee.
During the 2012 presidential election, Romney received 1.4 million dollars in donations from defense PACS and industry employees. That was 200,000 dollars more than current President Barack Obama received.
This election cycle, Trump has only received 55,000 dollars in donations from defense PACS and industry employees. Meanwhile, Clinton has received 273,000 dollars in donations from similar individuals.
That is a five-to-one advantage that further indicates Trump’s lack of support from those in the military community.
He tries to overcompensate by padding his list with meaningless endorsements, and he uses dangerous rhetoric to strike fear in the hearts of Americans.
By saying that the military is a disaster and spreading the lie that terrorism is spreading at a rapid pace, he is trying to paint himself as the savior that will come in and make everything better.
The only problem is that he doesn’t know how to make things better. Which is why we are seeing the Republican presidential candidate receive record lows in support from those in the military and defense communities.
Here is a video of Donald Trump’s national security speech in Manchester, New Hampshire:
Image is a YouTube screengrab.
