Retired U.S. Navy Captain Hung Cao, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Virginia, announced his endorsement of former President Donald Trump in response to the Colorado Supreme Court disqualifying the 45th president from the ballot Thursday night.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that the “Insurrection Clause” in the U.S. Constitution bars Trump from being on the ballot, as Breitbart News reported.
Cao — who escaped communist Vietnam as a young child with his family days before Saigon fell in 1975 and went on to serve in countless deployments around the world in U.S. Naval Special Operations as an adult — wrote in a tweet that “disqualifying the frontrunner to protect the incumbent is the kind of thing I have seen in third-world countries.”
He then announced his endorsement of Trump in a video shared with the tweet.
“For my grandkids and yours, I’m voting for Donald Trump. I’m voting for America; it’s basic common sense,” he said at the end of the video.
At the start of the clip, he compared Trump’s and Biden’s records as president.
Disqualifying the frontrunner to protect the incumbent is the kind of thing I have seen in third-world countries. I never thought I would see it here in America. I'm endorsing @realDonaldTrump for President. Watch my video below 👇 pic.twitter.com/x1Vl149YNz
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) December 20, 2023
“In 2016, when I reported to the Pentagon, I was counting every bomb, every missile, and every torpedo for imminent war with North Korea,” Cao recalled. “Then Donald Trump was elected, and he pulled us back from the brink. We had peace.”
Cao noted Afghanistan was “stable” under Trump and contrasted it to the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan — where 13 U.S. service members were killed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021:
Under [Trump’s] watch, Afghanistan was stable; I know because I returned from my final deployment in Afghanistan on January 5, 2021, but then Joe Biden entered the White House, and months later, we had a disastrous withdrawal. Eleven Marines, one sailor, and one soldier were murdered. Americans were left behind; allies were abandoned.
Cao noted that since Biden has taken office, wars have broken out in both Israel and Ukraine and contended China is prepared to pounce on Taiwan.
“With Joe Biden in the White House, the world is burning; under President Trump, it was our economy that was on fire,” he said, further drawing a dichotomy between the last two presidents, adding:
Life was more affordable. You could buy a house, groceries were cheaper, we were energy-independent, and our border was secured. Under Joe Biden, eight million illegal immigrants have poured into our country. That’s the population of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Cao seeks to earn the GOP nomination to take on twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), in the general election. In late November, he caught up with Breitbart News for an exclusive interview in which he recounted his family’s harrowing escape from communist Vietnam, his ascent to United States Navy Captain, and the “calling” to serve his country in the Senate amid what he sees as an absence of strong leaders. The candidate also detailed how Virginia is just as competitive as any swing state this year, including Arizona and Pennsylvania.
