The results of November’s presidential election will have a profound impact on the U.S. military. The values, leadership, and operational focus of America’s armed forces under Donald Trump and J.D. Vance versus Kamala Harris and Tim Walz couldn’t be more different.
Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Darin Gaub, who commanded thousands of soldiers for a decade, told WorldNetDaily: “Throughout the Biden presidency, I began hearing for the first time in my life that people are telling their children to do something else rather than join the military – and I can’t blame them.”
Gaub, a former UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and co-founder of Restore Liberty, added, “Many of today’s military leaders are inadequate, and in the military, everything ultimately comes down to leadership.”
Regarding the upcoming election, Gaub noted that Harris and Walz, continuing the Biden-Harris administration’s hard-left ideology, “would significantly affect the morale of those who serve the country.” He pointed out that service members would be subject to “another four years of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion deciding who gets promoted based on everything but merit.” This, he warned, could lead to more families discouraging their children from military service.
“Only those who comply with an agenda that has nothing to do with our military war-fighting capacity will be promoted,” Gaub predicted. He also criticized the Biden administration’s decision-making, from the abandonment of the Bagram Air Base to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he said “projected weakness worldwide.”
Gaub believes a Harris presidency would continue this trend, resulting in greater global instability. He linked recent geopolitical crises—Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s military expansion, and rising tensions in the Middle East—to weak leadership.
In contrast, Gaub expressed optimism about a Trump-Vance administration, saying, “Americans will have patience and allow them to do the things that need to be done to right this sinking ship.” He expects aggressive reforms in the military, with a return to merit-based promotions and improved readiness to project global strength.
“With Trump as commander-in-chief,” he said, “we’ll see military readiness transform in a fashion that projects strength to the rest of the world,” likely reducing threats from nations like Russia, China, and North Korea. However, Gaub reminded, “it takes time to build and rebuild,” but emphasized that the Biden-Harris administration has been systematically dismantling the military through its “woke” policies.
