This public letter includes a list of signatories including influential libertarians, Republican legislators, and military veterans which can be found below.
The newly adopted Republican Party platform promises to “SEAL THE BORDER” and “PREVENT WORLD WAR THREE.” Donald Trump, who last month formally became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee for the third time, should endorse the Defend the Guard Act as a way to achieve both.
The Defend the Guard Act is state-based legislation that would prevent the deployment of National Guard units overseas into foreign wars unless Congress has first officially declared war, as the Constitution requires.
Despite commonly being dismissed as “weekend warriors,” the National Guard has been the primary fighting force in the Global War on Terror. 45% of those deployed in the post-9/11 wars have been Guardsmen, and Guardsmen have also represented nearly 20% of the casualties from those wars.
My father’s childhood friend was deployed with the North Dakota National Guard when he was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2012. The North Dakota National Guard would not have been in Afghanistan if the Defend the Guard Act had been law in North Dakota and if states had insisted that Congress declare war first.
Lamentably, in addition to their tremendous cost, none of the post-9/11 wars have been constitutional. In fact, Congress has not declared war as required by Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution since World War II, and yet, the United States has intervened in countless overseas conflicts since then.
An Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) is not a declaration of war, but rather, represents Congress’ abdication of their authority and responsibility to declare war to the president—a situation the framers of the Constitution attempted to prevent.
The result has been an asymmetry between foreign policy outcomes and the public’s wishes, and at great cost to the military and the men and women who loyally serve in it.
The American public has consistently favored withdrawal from our endless wars while their government in DC has prolonged them. For instance, the public has repeatedly favored withdrawal from Syria, but famously, top generals lied to President Trump when he attempted to leave.
In addition, nearly three-fourths of veterans supported leaving Afghanistan when President Trump negotiated the original Doha agreement, but the Joe Biden Administration recklessly pushed the withdrawal date from May to the middle of “fighting season,” leading to predictable disaster.
The Defend the Guard Act would have prohibited National Guard units from being sent to any of those conflicts unless Congress, on behalf of the public, went on record first.
An additional consequence of Congress’ abdication is that the National Guard has been fighting endless wars when they could have been deployed at the southern border or at home to protect their communities from natural disasters.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, 3,200 Louisiana Guardsmen were overseas in Iraq. When Florida was recently hit by hurricanes, 165 members of the Florida National Guard were training Ukrainians. Earlier this year, Arizona National Guardsmen were injured in a drone strike that killed three U.S. troops on the Jordan-Syria border when they could have been assisting Texas in its efforts at the United States border with Mexico.
The above examples prove that if Donald Trump backed the Defend the Guard Act, it would be consistent with his “America First” messaging and popular with his base of constitutional conservatives.
After Governor Greg Abbott sparred with President Biden over the Texas National Guard and the border earlier this year, the Texas GOP voted internally on the following Republican proposition:
“The Texas Legislature should prohibit the deployment of the Texas National Guard to a foreign conflict unless Congress first formally declares war.”
An overwhelming 84% supported the proposition, totaling more than 1.8 million votes.
In addition to grassroots support, the legislation has been endorsed by Vivek Ramaswamy, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Congressman Paul Gosar, Senator Rand Paul, and, of course, all of the signatories below. Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on X, “I support state-level ‘Defend the Guard’ acts, which prohibit the deployment of the National Guard abroad without a formal declaration of war by Congress. It would put a limit on the military adventurism we take for granted today as normal.”
After a monumental vote in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, which is the second-largest legislative chamber in the United States behind Congress, a Fox & Friends panel hosted by Will Cain, Pete Hegseth, and Kayleigh McEnany expressed resounding support for the legislation. “To me, it makes a lot of sense, and I spent most of my career as a National Guardsman,” Hegseth said, “I love it.” McEnany added, “I love it, too.”
When I asked Congressman Thomas Massie about the effort, he said, “Trump should commit to respecting all aspects of Congress’s sole authority to declare war. This includes all branches of the military as well as the Guard.”
The legislation is also tripartisan, and Donald Trump’s support would likely win over many independents and libertarians to his campaign.
In June, the Montana Republican Party became the sixth state GOP party to adopt Defend the Guard language in its platform. To this day, the bill has been championed in over thirty states by Republican and Democrat sponsors and cosponsors (over a quarter of them military veterans) with the Libertarian Party National Committee’s endorsement and the help of many Libertarian Party state affiliates.
“My goal over the next year is to gain support for this bill from prominent liberty-minded congressmen and senators, like Matt Gaetz and Mike Lee,” said Angela McArdle, Chair of the Libertarian Party National Committee. “I think a libertarian populist wave is sweeping the nation and people are very open to the idea of bringing our troops home.” The Libertarian National Committee officially endorsed the legislation during McArdle’s first term as LNC Chair.
In an effort to win over Libertarian votes, Donald Trump pledged to commute Ross Ulbricht’s sentence and put a Libertarian in his cabinet at the Libertarian Party National Convention in May. Endorsing the Defend the Guard Act is one more thing he can do to persuade Libertarians since it has been one of the party’s primary issue-coalition efforts.
I suspect that Trump’s endorsement would also win over many “small-L” libertarians. The libertarian group “Being Libertarian,” which has over 500k followers across all media platforms, ran a poll on X asking whether libertarians would vote for Trump if he publicly encouraged state governments to pass the Defend the Guard Act, if he supported Congessman Massie’s or Senator Mike Lee’s “End the Fed” legislation, and if he pledged to pardon Julian Assange, and 86% said yes.
An endorsement of the movement is low-cost to Trump since it is state legislation, and it also builds trust. Trump does not have to actually sign the bill into law himself. For Libertarians who are worried that Trump may not follow through with his other pledges to free Ross or put a party member in his cabinet, an endorsement of state legislation is low-hanging fruit that would instantly put this legislation on the map and push these bills over the finish line in many red states.
Libertarians and “America First” conservatives have been waiting for Congress to repeal the 2001 AUMF for years, but only nine U.S. senators voted for Rand Paul’s recent attempt to do so. Congressman Matt Gaetz’s war power resolutions received a similar result; his resolution to direct President Biden to remove troops from Syria only received 102 votes.
At the Libertarian Party National Convention, Donald Trump said, “I will return power to the states, local governments, and to the American people.” The Defend the Guard Act allows the states to insist that Congress do its job and return the decision to go to war back to the people.
As nineteenth-century U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster said, “It will be the solemn duty of the state governments to protect their own authority over their own militia and to interpose between their citizens and arbitrary power.”
Donald Trump should endorse the Defend the Guard movement and defend his support on these grounds: To appeal to Libertarians, he can say that he is “America First” and is opposed to wars that have not been declared by Congress under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11. To appeal to Republicans, he can say he believes the National Guard should be used for its constitutionally prescribed function under Article 1 Section 8, Clause 15 at the border to stop an “invasion” instead of being engaged in endless wars.
If re-elected, Trump has an opportunity to alter the course of American history for the better and prevent the United States government from becoming the centralized empire that the Founders feared.
Signed,
- Dan McKnight, Chairman of Bring Our Troops Home and ret. U.S. Marine Corps
- Ron Paul, former U.S. Congressman
- Joe Kent, Republican nominee for Washington’s 3rd District and ret. U.S. Army Special Forces
Organizations
- Scott Horton, Director of the Libertarian Institute
- Michael Boldin, Executive Director of the Tenth Amendment Center
- Darin Gaub, national spokesman for Restore Liberty and ret. U.S. Army
Media
- Dave Smith, host of Part of the Problem
- Chip Slate, President of Being Libertarian
- Dave DeCamp, host of Anitwar News
- Clint Russell, host of Liberty Lockdown
- Joe Sheehan, co-host of Human ReAction
- Josie Glabach, “The Redheaded Libertarian”
Republican Legislators
- Wendy Rogers, Arizona State Senator and ret. U.S. Air Force
- Justine Wadsack, Arizona State Senator
- Colton Moore, Georgia State Senator
- Ted Hill, Idaho State Representative and ret. U.S. Navy
- Jeff Shipley, Iowa State Representative
- Brett Fairchild, Kansas State Representative
- Candy Massaroni, Kentucky State Representative and ret. U.S. Air Force
- Eric Brakey, Maine State Senator and Executive Director of the Free State Project
- Robin Grammer, Maryland State Delegate
- Brad Hudson, Missouri State Representative
- Brian H. Seitz, Missouri State Representative
- Lee Deming, Montana State Representative
- Tom Mannion, New Hampshire State Representative and ret. U.S. Marine Corps
- Ron Ferguson, Ohio State Representative
- Jennifer Gross, Ohio State Representative
- Aaron Aylward, South Dakota State Representative
- Tom Pischke, South Dakota State Senator
- Jarrod Sammis, Vermont State Representative
- Pat McGeehan, West Virginia Delegate and ret. U.S. Air Force
Libertarian Party Officials
- Angela McArdle, Chair of the Libertarian Party National Committee
- Michael Heise, founder of the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus
- Andrew Chadderdon, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Michigan
- Sid Daoud, Chair of the Montana Libertarian Party and ret. U.S. Army
- Rebecca Whiting, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Minnesota and ret. U.S. Army
- Josiah Baker, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Tennessee
- Taylor Richmond, Chair of the Libertarian Party of West Virginia
- Rachael Nelson, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Nebraska
- Hannah Goodman, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado
- Adrian F. Malagon, Chair of the Libertarian Party of California
- Austin Martin, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii
Candidates and Other Veterans
- TJ Roberts, Republican nominee for Kentucky House of Representatives, District 66
- Taffy Howard, Republican nominee for South Dakota Senate, District 34 and ret. U.S. Air Force
- Sam Marty, Republican nominee for Southa Dakota Senate, District 28 and ret. U.S. Army
- Anthony Sabatini, Republican candidate for Lake County Commission and Florida National Guardsman
- Scott Spaulding, ret. U.S. Marine Corps and Purple Heart recipient
- Chris Enget, ret. Montana National Guard and Purple Heart recipient
- Derek Proulx, New Hampshire National Guard
- Clay Andersen, ret. U.S. Marine Corps
- Tom Jandron, ret. Montana National Guard
- Dylan Griffith, U.S. Army
- Alexander Schlegel, U.S. Air Force
