Why Veterans Are Voting for Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris has a problem with veterans.

They overwhelmingly support her opponent — favoring former President Donald Trump by a lopsided 61%-37%, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey.

For years, civilians have been sold a narrative that just isn't true.

Democrats and liberals in the media invested heavily in trying to portray Trump as a leader at odds with America's men and women in uniform.

But veterans themselves never bought the story — they've been one of the Republican's most steadfast constituencies.

Trump won about six out of 10 veterans in each of the past two presidential elections, and he's on track to match that performance this year.

Veterans like J.D. Vance better than Tim Walz, too.

Both vice presidential contenders are veterans themselves, though Harris' running mate has been criticized by men who served alongside him in the National Guard who say Walz lied about his rank and exited the service just in time to avoid being sent to war in Iraq.

While Walz does well with civilians, Pew's poll of veterans finds they prefer the ex-Marine on Trump's ticket: 53% of vets view Vance favorably, while only 34% have a positive impression of Walz.

The Pew study suggests veteran discontent with Harris isn't simply the result of a partisan tilt toward the GOP among vets.

Overall, less than a quarter of those polled — 23% — say Harris would make things better for veterans if she became president, compared to 55% who say Trump would do so.

Even among veterans who support Harris, 33% say she won't make much difference either way if she wins the White House, and 5% say she'd actually make things worse.

Trump's supporters, on the other hand, have little doubt — 83% of those backing him say he'd make things better for vets.

Whenever a high-profile general disparages Trump, as former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley recently did in Bob Woodward's book "War," his opinion makes headlines.

The sentiments of ordinary soldiers, and veterans, get much less attention.

There's a cultural gulf between these sides:

Politically vocal generals and the national security officials who sign their names to open letters supporting Harris for president are Washington insiders — creatures of "the Swamp."

Their perspectives and interests aren't those of the regular service member or vet.

When Milley, now retired, trashes Trump using standard Democratic campaign rhetoric — "now I realize he's a total fascist," he told Woodward — he's speaking the language of his clique.

It's also the language of his bank account.

Since leaving the Army, Milley has been making a mint as a consultant and a lecturer on the high-end circuit: "He is represented by the same high-powered speakers' agency as Hillary Clinton," notes Ken Klippenstein in The Intercept.

Klippenstein was recently suspended from X — the social media site formerly known as Twitter — for sharing hacked information about the Republican ticket. He can't be suspected of any sympathy for Trump when he exposes Milley's "cashing in."

The kind of institutions that pay top-dollar for Hillary Clinton don't expect to hear anything different from a speaker like Milley, and he knows it.

If veterans are a bedrock of Trump's support, swamp things like Milley are a core constituency for Harris.

Trump is running against them as much as against her, and veterans are well aware of it — yet they're with Trump, not the Swamp.

The top brass long misled America about the war in Afghanistan, which they insisted we were winning, and it was the troops who paid the price.

The fact that Harris has the backing of Washington's foreign policy establishment is for many voters a compelling reason to reject her.

Voters across the swing states trust Trump over Harris in matters of war and peace.

Fully 50% of those voters say Trump is better suited to handle the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, with only 39% expressing more confidence in Harris, according to polling by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump holds an even bigger lead when it comes to which candidate battleground voters trust to handle the Israel-Hamas war: 48% say Trump, just 33% say Harris.

Every year, the Biden-Harris administration has delivered a foreign policy disaster — the lethally botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Hamas massacre of more than a thousand Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, and the extension of the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East throughout 2024.

No wonder voters in the states most likely to decide the election want Trump's foreign policy, not more of what President Joe Biden and Harris have given us these last four years.

Veterans, in particular, know the cost of failed leadership.

They've paid it before, and if Harris wins, their brothers and sisters in arms will pay it again.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 10/08/24: How Donald Trump Can Win the Popular Vote
• 10/01/24: Iran Targets America's Elections -- and Trump
• 09/24/24: Trump's Would-Be Assassin's Explanation
• 09/17/24: When Character Assassination Becomes the Real Thing
• 09/10/24: Kamala Harris Runs Like a Republican -- and Misleads
• 09/04/24: Where Trump Is Moderate -- While Kam Is Maximalist
• 08/27/24: Donald Trump Is Reagan's Heir
• 08/20/24: Will Voters Settle for Joe Biden's Wing(wo)man?
• 08/13/24: Trump Has to Run Like It's 2016 Again
• 08/07/24: Is Trump Running Against Harris -- or Donald Trump?
• 07/30/24: Kamala Harris' 'Mean Girls' Election
• 07/23/24: Kamala Harris Is the Opponent Donald Trump Wants
• 07/16/24: Ready for Biden's Counterattack?
• 07/09/24: Biden Faces Richard Nixon's Choice
• 07/02/24: Should Biden Drop Out -- or Resign?
• 06/18/24: Separate Sexual Identity and State
• 06/18/24: Nigel Farage Makes the Trump Moment Permanent
• 06/04/24: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
• 05/07/24: The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party
• 05/06/24: Nationalists of the World, Unite?
• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
• 07/05/23: Could We Still Win a Revolutionary War?
• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
• 05/16/23: Feinstein Today Is Biden Tomorrow
• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
• 04/25/23: Who's In Charge of Clarence Thomas?
• 04/11/23: Beyond AI, Our Cyborg Future
• 04/04/23: 2024: 3 Leaders, 1 Way to Win
• 03/28/23: Climate Science Makes a Bad Religion
• 03/21/23: All the Conspiracy That's Fit to Print