Donald Trump didn’t sign loyalty oath for Illinois ballot that pledges not to ‘advocate the overthrow of the government’

President Joe Biden’s campaign condemned former President Donald Trump Saturday for sidestepping a decades-old, Illinois ballot-access tradition in which candidates pledge not to “advocate the overthrow of the government.”

Biden’s statement came in response to a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times report published earlier Saturday that Trump didn’t sign the voluntary loyalty oath as part of his package of ballot-access paperwork submitted Thursday to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

That omission — days before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection in which Trump has been charged — marked a departure from 2016 and 2020, when Trump signed the oath.

“For the entirety of our nation’s history, presidents have put their hand on the Bible and sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States — and Donald Trump can’t bring himself to sign a piece of paper saying he won’t attempt a coup to overthrow our government,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said. “We know he’s deadly serious because three years ago today he tried and failed to do exactly that.

“This is the same man who thinks American troops who died protecting the ideals outlined in the Constitution are suckers and losers — yet calls the convicted felons who violently assaulted and killed police officers on January 6th ‘hostages,’ ” Tyler said. “He can’t fathom putting anything — our country, our principles or the well-being and safety of the American people — above his own quest for retribution and power.”

In response, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said: “President Trump will once again take the oath of office on January 20th, 2025, and will swear ‘to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Under Illinois law, presidential candidates wanting to be on the March 19 primary ballot had to turn in nominating petitions to the Illinois State Board of Elections on Thursday or Friday. Though no longer mandatory, the loyalty oath has long been part of that process.

Biden and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis both signed the oath — as did several lower-tier Trump acolytes in Illinois.

“Why wouldn’t he sign it?” asked former Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who served on the House Jan. 6th select committee and said he signed the state loyalty oath for each of his six terms in Congress.

“Has he been advised maybe not to sign it because maybe there’s some legal exposures…given that oath, if he signed it, would be a violation of everything he actually did on Jan. 6, 2021, and leading up to it?” Kinzinger said.

The oath is a vestige of the red-baiting era of former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

In it, candidates swear they are not communists nor affiliated with communist organizations. They also attest that they “do not directly or indirectly teach or advocate the overthrow of the government of the United States or of this state or any unlawful change in the form of the governments thereof by force or any unlawful means.”

Signing is optional since federal courts ruled it unconstitutional on free-speech grounds, but Illinois lawmakers have left the oath in state law. Countless candidates, in flag-waving fashion, have continued to sign it even though it’s no longer compulsory.

It’s not clear why Trump chose not to sign this year at a time his nominating petitions are being challenged based on claims that he’s disqualified from running by the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from seeking public office.

Biden observed the Jan. 6 anniversary Friday with a blistering speech in which he characterized Trump as a mortal threat to democracy and described his conduct on Jan. 6 as “among the worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history.”

In August, a federal grand jury charged Trump with conspiracy and obstruction of justice in connection with what it said were his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by spreading lies about election fraud and sending a crowd of supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 with directions to “fight like hell.”

The ensuing overrunning of the Capitol, as presidential election results were being certified, was linked to seven deaths, attacks on more than 140 police officers and charges against 1,265 people for crimes including assaulting peace officers with deadly weapons, entering restricted areas with weapons and obstructing an official government proceeding.

More than 700 of those charged have pleaded guilty and entered plea agreements, and 140 went to trial and were convicted.

Forty-two Illinoisans are among those charged with Jan. 6-related offenses, and some have been convicted, the Chicago Sun-Times has reported.

A voting-rights organization called Free Speech for People, five Illinois voters and two Chicago law firms are contesting Trump’s nominating petitions in court based on his conduct before and during the insurrection.

Challenges against Trump are pending in 15 other states, according to an organization tracking them. For now, his name has been struck from the ballot in two others — Colorado and Maine.

On Friday, the Supreme Court said it will hear Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court decision barring him from the ballot in that state. The case is set for arguments Feb. 8.

On Friday, a campaign spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a frequent Biden surrogate, belittled Trump for not signing the oath.

“Pledging not to overthrow our democracy is a hard thing to do when you’ve already attempted it once,” Pritzker spokeswoman Christina Amestoy said.

Pat Nabong / Sun-Times

State election records show Trump’s other Republican primary opponents, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, did not sign the state loyalty oath. Christie signed the document during his 2016 run for president.

HEAR LIZ CHENEY ON TRUMP

Some of Trump’s Republican political allies in Illinois signed the oath. State election records show U.S. Rep. Mary Miller and her husband, state Rep. Chris Miller, R-Hindsboro, did for this year’s elections. Trump’s endorsement was pivotal in the congresswoman’s 2022 election win against Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis.

Chris Miller attended Trump’s Save America Rally on Jan. 6 but said he did not enter the Capitol or participate in violence. Still, the Illinois House passed a resolution in March 2021 denouncing Miller for having “participated and publicly promoted his role in a rally that led to a violent insurrection of the Capitol.”

The Millers’ Trump-endorsed ally Darren Bailey, a former Republican gubernatorial nominee now running for Congress, also signed the loyalty oath. Running to unseat fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in the March primary, Bailey signed the document for 2022 and 2024, state records show.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Of Trump’s having signed the loyalty oath before the insurrection and not now, Kinzinger said: “What was the world like when he signed it in 2016 and when he signed it in 2020? Well, at that point, there had not been an attempted insurrection on the federal government

“The difference between the last two times he did it and this time, when he didn’t, is he has a track record of trying to overthrow the government.”