Democratic nominee Joe Biden is winning far more endorsements from national security professionals and retired flag officers — and by a large margin. The former vice president has the endorsement of 780 retired military officers and national security appointees — nearly 12 times as many as Trump. On the flip-side, Trump has a total of 66.
As The Washington Post reporter Max Boot wrote, "Most of them are not actually senior, and few have any actual national security experience. Mainly it’s a list of Republican apparatchiks, including former Rep. Bob Livingston (who had to quit Congress after a sex scandal); former governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi; Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani; Washington lobbyist and former Trump aide Matt Schlapp; former Heritage Foundation president Edwin J. Feulner; journalist Deroy Murdock (identified as a former member of the Education Department’s advisory board on international educational programs); and John Deming, a former deputy press secretary to John McCain. (They couldn’t even find a former McCain press secretary to back Trump?)"
Boot added, "The missing names include former defense secretary Jim Mattis, former national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, former director of national intelligence Daniel Coats and former acting director Joseph Maguire. To be sure, none of these individuals has endorsed Biden — but nor do any of them have anything complimentary to say about the president they served."
Boot continued, "Even more impressively, the ranks of Biden endorsers include 129 Republicans — prominent ones. See, for example, former director of national intelligence and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte; former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden; former CIA and FBI director William Webster; and former undersecretaries of defense Dov Zakheim, Michael Vickers and Eric Edelman. It should tell you something that the Republican all-star team is batting for Biden."
Additionally, Biden has the support of more than 200 retired admirals and generals, including at least 22 four-stars compared to Trump's roster, which doesn't include the support of even one four-star flag officer.