Calls to GI Hotlines Rise as Service Members Consider Defying Trump's Orders [View all]

Conscientious objector applications surge under Trump as military members fear becoming “the saber that he’s rattling.”

By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg , Truthout
Published July 4, 2025

As the country tumbles towards fascism, some members of the U.S. military have struggled with a choice: defy illegal orders, or participate in the dismantling of American democracy. In June, over the objections of local leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, President Donald Trump called up the National Guard and the U.S. Marines to quell protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids. That month, calls to the GI Rights Hotline spiked. The hotline provides information on military discharges and related issues; all calls are confidential. The hotline, which is jointly administered by a large consortium of nonprofit organizations, connects callers with both paid resource counselors and experienced volunteers.

The consortium includes groups like Quaker House and The Center on Conscience & War, which assists service members with applications for conscientious objector status, and has seen a similar uptick in requests for help. So far this year, the center has helped 30 service members submit applications — more than they typically submit in an entire year. A high percentage of these applications are usually successfully accepted, according to the center.

Steve Woolford, a counselor with the hotline, told Truthout in an email that his office, which is just one of the multiple sites that staff the hotline, received over 300 calls in June, a 94 percent increase in calls from the previous June. “Overall callers have shared serious concerns that the president is moving the country away from a representative democracy altogether,” Woolford told Truthout in an email. “These callers believe that the military will determine what the United States becomes by deciding which side to follow. For them, having service members refuse to turn their backs on the constitution is the safeguard against martial law and dictatorship.”

U.S. Air Force airman Juan Bettancourt said his colleagues in the armed forces have expressed similar concerns. Bettancourt is expressing his own views and not speaking on behalf of the military or the Department of Defense. “They are absolutely petrified of being put in a position in which they are the vehicle to advance further authoritarianism, and the proto-fascism that we’re seeing,” Bettancourt told Truthout. “There is absolutely that fear that they’re going to be the pawns in this chess game that brings about the further expansion of authoritarianism.”

https://truthout.org/articles/calls-to-gi-hotlines-rise-as-service-members-consider-defying-trumps-orders/