March 2016 Tony Porta appeared on the Hannity show with then-candidate Donald Trump. It was at that time the term “Vets for Trump” got a huge national boost.

April 2016 I purchase the domain name Vets-For-Trump.com because all other domains without hyphens were purchased. I invite veterans for Trump to join us by contacting them on their Social Media pages. I get one response from Joshua Macias. Joshua was from the Virginia Beach area. Josh introduced me to some of his contacts. I continue to post articles and start listing events Joshua sends.

July 2016 I receive an email from GOPVets at RNC Headquarters in Washington D.C. inviting me to a grassroots meeting. I attend the meeting. There are about 20 people including 3 from the Trump Campaign, Bikers for Trump, Citizens for Trump and some fellow veterans including Tony Porta as well as representatives from the RNC.

Tony Porta had postponed an operation to attend the RNC meeting. Afterward Tony got his operation but almost died and was unable to continue as our National Spokesman. At that point, it was up to me (Mike Kelly) and Joshua to be the point men on the national level.

With only 3 months to election day, I realized it would have to be a purely Psychological Operation. Coming from a PsyOps unit but not involved directly in that aspect of the unit I was able to pull a few things off. We used our allies in the Social Media world to help spread the word. We soon became number 1 on Google for any search on Veterans or Vets for Trump. I authored well over 250 posts supporting candidate Trump, pointing out the flaws of Hillary Clinton and doing interviews along with Joshua. We also had about 60 articles presented by various contributors. These articles were syndicated throughout the social media world giving us a larger than life presence in the public eye.

During our time we only had 126 volunteers register. Of those 126 I was only able to communicate with a handful, mainly those who reached out to me after registering. If you are a registered member and we have never talked on the phone feel free to use the Contact form and let me know a good day and time.

We are keeping this website active until we see if President Trump will put himself and his family through a second term. I never intended to become the de facto leader of Vets for Trump but will do the best I can with the time I can devote.

PS When Candidate Trump became President Trump we changed the logo to indicate Victory. Hope you like the change.

Mike Kelly
USAF Retired
Webmaster and Author

From the VetsForDonaldTrump.com website:

In 2015 the first team of Veterans to come to service for our President started in two places at the same time, in Virginia with Joshua Macias and in Florida with Vlad Lemets. While Joshua was our Presence on the ground, organizing Veteran Community, Vlad took care of the digital aspect of things. We arrived eager to support our candidate and quickly found comradery in our joined military service. As all #Veterans know once a #Vet always a #Vet and the issues of #VAReform and #END22 were deep on our hearts. For far too long the political class has promised support to our community without any action. We saw a difference which has paid YUGE dividends in our currently seated president POTUS45 Donald J. Trump.

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His actions as a civilian contractor supported military and Veteran initiatives long before running for office showcasing his true compassionate desire to help our community. Speaking with his top aid it was made clear that taking care of the Veterans was top on his agenda. We sought out to ensure that the Veteran Plight was on the top of the list of every presidential debate. We can not afford to continue to lose the best and brightest among us to self-inflicted wounds caused by WAR trauma, lack of earned benefits, resources or improper treatment.

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The need to create Vets For Trump movement was evident. It was clear that the Veteran support was key to the victory of the Trump MAGA Movement. President Trump Formally announced running in June 2015 and Veterans for Donald Trump page launched online in July 2015. @veteransfordonaldtrump. To this day it is the Largest Vets for Trump resource online with over 210K Followers. Later on we acquired from a fellow Veteran and Patriot a second Largest Online Vets for Trump Page which now has over 130K Followers @trumpvet.

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#VetsForTrump formed alongside the grassroots MAGA movement across the country as the backbone and augmented security for our Meetups. Veteran Courage, Strength and commitment quickly fueled the fire of passion within the MAGA movement and hundreds of thousands of Veterans joined the cause to stand up and ensure a future for our community encompassing every race creed or age. Vets are the most diverse community there is in the Nation. We do not see color, race or religion as defining factors – only the branch of service you call

home. As our Veterans showed to support our President elect we were reminded of the bonds that tie us together with the First Responder Community. Many of our Police, Fire and Safety personnel are Veterans whom we serve with and their fight for support is our fight – for we never leave a man behind.

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We have made friends and allies with many influencers and organizations such as Patriot Guard, Diamond and Silk, Deplorable Choir, Cowboys for Trump, Bikers for Trump, Black Voices for Trump, Latinos For Trump, Diversity Coalition, Citizens for Trump and Turning Point USA to name the few. The need for Veterans to step into the Leadership Roles in our Country can not be more clear. We are the Team that is doing it.