Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday earned the endorsement of 88 retired generals and admirals, Politico reports.
The Republican nominee's campaign unveiled an open letter, organized by Major Gen. Sidney Shachnow, a 40-year Army veteran and Holocaust survivor, and Rear Admiral Charles Williams, ahead of a speech on veterans affairs in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Shachnow said that Trump "has the temperament to commander-in-chief," while Williams called the Republican nominee "more trusted" than his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
In the letter, the retired military leaders warned of the "potentially extremely perilous" combination of budget cuts and policy choices will "emboldened" enemies of the country as a result of those actions.
"That is especially the case if our government persists in the practices that have brought us to this present pass," they wrote in the letter quoted by Politico. "For this reason, we support Donald Trump and his commitment to rebuild our military, to secure our borders, to defeat our Islamic supremacist adversaries and restore law and order domestically. We urge our fellow Americans to do the same."
The strong show of support for the Republican nominee comes a month after a group of 50 prominent Republican foreign policy and national security experts signed a letter denouncing Trump's presidential candidacy and pledging not to vote for him.
Trump called the latest endorsements a "great honor" in a statement released by the campaign.
“I thank each of them for their service and their confidence in me to serve as commander-in-chief," Trump said, according to Politico.
"Keeping our nation safe and leading our armed forces is the most important responsibility of the presidency. Under my administration, we will end the weak foreign policy of the last eight years, rebuild our military, give our troops clear rules of engagement and take care of our veterans when they come home. We can only Make America Great Again if we ensure our military remains the finest fighting force in the world, and that’s exactly what I will do as president,” he added.
The endorsement comes as a CNN poll released Tuesday found that Trump is closing the gap over Clinton.
In early August, Clinton led by as many as 10 points in some polls, with many pundits saying Trump had lost all his momentum.
Now, however, it appears things have now turned around, with Trump closing the gap quickly despite having what many observers considered to be a "rough" month, with some well-known Republicans declaring support for Clinton, and Trump's campaign staff undergoing a major overhaul.