Left-Wing Activists Offer Help To Troops Who Don’t Want To Follow Trump’s Orders

WASHINGTON — Left-wing activists are offering U.S. Army personnel ways to fight back against President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard or other military decisions, telling them to reach out via encrypted messages.

A flyer has been distributed on Capitol Hill advertising a website titled “Not What You Signed Up For” — created by the foreign policy group Win Without War — that directs unhappy troops to left-leaning organizations that provide counseling and legal advice on issues such as “refusing illegal orders” from the president. The webpage highlights military activist groups About Face and GI Rights Network, as well as the 88-year-old National Lawyers Guild (NLG), which has a history of ties to U.S. adversaries such as Soviet Russia and Palestinian terrorists. (RELATED: Leaders Of Activist Group Opposing Trump’s DC Crime Crackdown Have Criminal Records)

Win Without War announced the new website Sept. 9, appealing to National Guard troops that Trump began deploying around Washington, D.C., in response to violent crime the month prior. “With President Trump threatening  ‘war’ on the city of Chicago and already deploying armed military units into the streets of Los Angeles and D.C., our troops risk being forced into situations that are not legal, that they aren’t trained for, or that violate their conscience,” Win Without War said. “This is not what they signed up for.”

A flyer advertising Win Without War’s website with resources for disgruntled military members is seen on Capitol Hill on September 25, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Hudson Crozier/Daily Caller News Foundation)

The website for servicemembers warns them to use “a personal device, NOT a military or government computer, email account, phone, or Wi-Fi network” to reach out to the activists. It also recommends encrypted email services, Signal for secure text messages, and a virtual private network (VPN) for browsing to avoid surveillance.

Win Without War and the think tank that founded it — the Center for International Policy — did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment. The U.S. Army did not respond to a request for comment.

“It seems clear that this organization is encouraging members of the military to violate their Oath of Enlistment and lay the groundwork for civil disobedience or protest within the military on a massive scale which seems dangerous and irresponsible,” Parker Thayer, who investigates activist groups for the conservative Capital Research Center, told the DCNF in an email. “It’s reminiscent of the tactics that some of the more extreme left-wing groups used to protest the Vietnam war.”

Win Without War executive director Sara Haghdoosti gave an anti-Trump speech at “Hands Off” protest in Washington, D.C., in April, a video on her LinkedIn account shows.

“Donald Trump tried to tear my family apart,” Haghdoosti said, citing his ban on immigration from some Muslim-majority countries over national security concerns, a policy he revived from his first presidency. “When the Muslim ban first came down, I was pregnant with my first child and terrified that my mother would not be allowed in the country because she, like me, simply happened to be born in Iran.”

“It was because of protests just like this, as well as legal action from our movements, that my family was OK,” Haghdoosti told her audience, prompting cheers.

Win Without War has registered two nonprofits of its own, according to its website. The Center for International Policy has received more than $515,000 in government grants since 2020, according to tax filings that do not specify government agencies.

The new website also points viewers to the National Lawyers Guild’s Military Law Task Force, which released a statement in March discussing ways to “help military dissenters resist the Trump agenda.”

“Trump and [Elon] Musk can give orders, but they rely on a compliant military to enforce their agenda,” the group said.

The NLG, founded in 1937, has repeatedly been subject to investigations by lawmakers and federal agents since the 1940s over suspicions that it was tied to the Soviet Union, according to Capital Research Center. The guild has denied such connections, but it continues to associate with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADC), a group the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) placed on a list of “Communist Front Organizations” in 1967 because it employed Soviets.

The United Nations worked in tandem with the NLG to create the IADC in 1948, according to the guild’s website. IADC’s president is currently listed as co-chair of the NLG’s international committee.

Charlotte Kates, a leader of the pro-Iran group Samidoun, is a part-time organizer for the NLG’s international committee, its website says. The Treasury Department sanctioned Samidoun in October 2024 as a financier of the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The NLG did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. (RELATED: Foreign Aid Agencies Awarded $27 Million To Group Helping Leftist Protesters Avoid Jail)

About a year ago, I watched people at Union Station burn an American flag that was federal property, vandalize landmarks with pro-terrorist messages, and give the scrambling cops a run for their money.

It is quite a different scene today. pic.twitter.com/ubmL5QcS95

— Hudson Crozier 🇺🇸 (@Hudson_Crozier) August 21, 2025

GI Rights Network, also on the Not What You Signed Up For website, took a somewhat less anti-Trump stance than the other groups, telling the DCNF in an email that it has not changed its priorities “based on any presidency.”

“I believe people in our network spoke to the people behind the billboard and were fine with them listing us as a resource for people with concerns about service-connected issues including things like conscientious objection,” GI Rights Network resource counselor Steve Woolford said.

“There have been some new areas that had not come up in the past such as National Guard deployments to states where the state governor has been against those deployments,” Woolford said. “Social media is more prevalent than ever and there has been some increase in questions about potentially ‘political’ posting. Vaccines were challenged in the past, but never handled the way they currently are.  Transgender issues have taken a new form.”

The network said in May that Trump was trying to “strip rights” from transgender people by banning them from the military.

“While we keep up with those issues, we do not as a network try to change military rules, regulations and policies,” Woolford said. “We see our role as informing people to enable them to make their own decisions and choose their preferred options for addressing whatever it is they have called us about.”

The third group on Win Without War’s new site, About Face, purports to stand against “U.S. wars, militarism, and imperialism.” The organization did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

About Face said in a Sept. 6 X post that National Guard troops “have a responsibility to refuse to be weaponized against your fellow Americans” if Trump deploys them into Chicago.

“You have options,” the group said, linking to its request form for servicemembers to seek help.

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