A hotline for soldiers is swamped with worries about Trump’s order to enter LA | Opinion
The Quaker House in Fayetteville once counseled members of the military who had moral qualms about going to Vietnam.
Now it’s advising soldiers who have moral qualms about going to Los Angeles.
The Quaker House is one of several groups that operates the GI Rights Hotline (877-447-4487). The hotline has become extra hot since President Trump sent the National Guard and then the Marines into Los Angeles in response to protests over federal immigration raids.
Not far from Quaker House on Tuesday, Trump told soldiers at Fort Bragg: “Very simply, we will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again.”
That order is unsettling some who might have to carry it out.
“We’re getting a lot of calls from people who are active military or National Guard who are saying, ‘I’m not real comfortable with this,’ ” said Quaker House Executive Director Wayne Finegar.
Normally, the hotline receives 300 to 500 calls a month, he said. But on Saturday, calls were coming every three minutes. On Sunday, every minute.
The Quaker House has two counselors answering the calls. On Monday, they fielded about 100 calls each, Finegar said. Counselors with the hotline’s other sponsors – the Center on Conscience & War and attorneys from the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild — also take calls.
At the Center on Conscience & War office in Washington, D.C., counselor Bill Galvin said the call volume has soared. “It’s nonstop,” he said. “It’s just ringing constantly. It’s crazy.”
Steve Woolford, a Quaker House hotline counselor, said in a blog post this week: “People are understandably worried about the military being turned against citizens, in part due to Trump’s suggestion that he would use troops on ‘the enemy within’. People are hoping that U.S. military members will refuse any such orders.”
One caller said in a hotline voice message, “I am currently in the National Guard and have received activation to L.A. …. I want to know what my rights are in this situation of not wanting to participate in something I think is morally incorrect and not something I want to be doing when I don’t agree with it from any standpoint. I just don’t want to get in legal trouble for refusing an order.”
The options for military members who object to being deployed to Los Angeles are not clear. “If you’re a conscientious objector, you are required to oppose all wars, all military action, not just this one,” Finegar said.
Some National Guard members might seek an exemption because of pressing needs at their workplace or a family situation, but active duty military members would have difficulty disobeying a lawful order.
“Right now, we don’t know enough about what’s happening to know what advice to give,” Finegar said. “So far, nothing has been ordered that seems like it would cross the line as an unlawful order. So far it’s ‘Stand in front of these federal buildings and try to look scary.’ ”
Galvin noted that the situation is especially fraught for California National Guard members. The president ordered them to go into Los Angeles, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called that order illegal and the state has filed a lawsuit to block it.
Determining a lawful order is complicated when it is a politically charged one coming from the president, Woolford said. What soldiers can refuse to do now varies with the political climate, he said, noting that soldiers who were discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine under President Biden have been offered reinstatement and back pay under Trump.
The surge in hotline calls caps a steady rise that began with Trump’s return to the White House. Finegar said many lower-level officers call with worries that they will have to give orders under Trump that they can’t morally support. The gist of what they say, Finegar said, is “Something is going to happen and I want to know what my options are.”
Something is happening as Marines are being sent into Los Angeles and perhaps soon to other cities. For soldiers who object to being used to put down U.S. protests, their options will depend on whether they choose to obey their conscience or their commander in chief.
This story was originally published June 11, 2025 at 11:22 AM with the headline "A hotline for soldiers is swamped with worries about Trump’s order to enter LA | Opinion."