Former President Donald Trump reportedly submitted election paperwork in the state of Illinois this week without signing the customary “loyalty pledge,” a Red Scare relic wherein candidates vow not to “advocate the overthrow of the government.”
The Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ reported the omission on Saturday, three years to the day after Trump supporters mobbed the U.S. Capitol in a misguided attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Trump’s various efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election currently threaten to send him to federal prison as he faces multiple special-counsel-led trials.
It has also led voters in several states, including Illinois, to try to prevent his name from being on primary ballots this year.
The Chicago outlets noted that Trump had signed the pledge during both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, as did Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Biden, who has also reportedly signed this year. Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis also reportedly signed the pledge.
Illinois lawmakers have attempted to scrap the “loyalty pledge” entirely since its 1950s inception, in the era Sen. Joe McCarthy led a heated charge against supposedly malicious communist activity around the United States during the Cold War.
Other states implemented loyalty oaths, as well. But federal courts have largely declared them unconstitutional.
Since Illinois’ oath is easy to sign and optional, it has simply become customary for presidential hopefuls, according to The Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ.
Trump’s apparent failure to promise he won’t overthrow the government if he wins a second term by not signing the oath sets off alarm bells.
The full text of Illinois’ oath affirms that the candidate is not a communist or a member of any communist groups and 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.”
HuffPost has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.