(TruthAndLiberty.com) – Former President Donald Trump, who is currently leading the 2024 Republican primary race, has refused to sing an optional pledge that states he will not “advocate” to overthrow the U.S. government ahead of the election.
Trump, who first won the presidential election in 2016, has managed to maintain a strong loyal base of supporters known as MAGA, a reference to his campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. During his two previous presidential runs in 2016 and 2020, Trump had signed the loyalty oath document which was then submitted to the election authorities in Illinois. However, this time he opted to not sign the document which has been non-mandatory since 1970. The oath first emerged from a Cold-Era law that is over five decades old.
While the oath is not a requirement, it has become a tradition for presidential candidates to submit the signed oath along with their nominating petitions to the Illinois State Board of Elections ahead of the March 19 state primary.
As part of the oath candidates need to declare that they are not communists, nor are they affiliated with any communist organization. In a different part of the oath, they are also vowing to not directly or indirectly advocate for the United States government to be overthrown.
So far, both President Joe Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have signed the oath, while former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley have not.
Following the news that Trump refused to sign the oath, Biden took to X, formerly known as Twitter to write that Trump was willing to “sacrifice our democracy” in order to install himself in the White House.
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