Later in the interview, Rhodes said he wanted to let Trump know that “we're ready to serve, encourage him to do that, call us up as a militia,” and “order us all to come together in our counties under his command.”
On The Gateway Pundit podcast, Stewart Rhodes announces he is relaunching the Oath Keepers
Rhodes: Trump should “call us up as a militia, order us all to come together in our counties under his command, which gives you complete legal sanction to do what you're doing”
Written by Media Matters Staff
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From The Gateway Pundit's Rumble channel on November 9, 2025
STEWART RHODES (FOUNDER, OATH KEEPERS): I've been invited to speak across the country about January 6. And now that I'm relaunching Oath Keepers, I'm getting more invitations to come speak as well. So, yeah, I'm relaunching the organization and rebuilding it.
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They tried to take us out after January 6 but what man means for evil, God will use for good. I came out stronger after it, and so my goal is to rebuild the organization stronger than ever because it's an essential mission. Absolutely.
JIM HOFT (HOST): Oh, that's wonderful news. So the Oath Keepers is going to have a relaunch here, and Stewart's breaking that news this weekend?
RHODES: Yes, sir.
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RHODES: I mean, I have to make sure that if I'm ever taken out again or if I'm or when I'm taken out again, that the organization can drive on without me. That's not what happened last time.
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So we want to make sure it's got resilience and redundancy built in that it can drive on strong. With the same mission, though. You can't call yourself an Oath Keeper if you're not willing to protect people against radical antifa and other leftist violence in the streets.
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From The Gateway Pundit's Rumble channel on November 9, 2025
STEWART RHODES (FOUNDER, OATH KEEPERS): And one other thing I want to say is that President Trump, as commander in chief, always has absolute authority to call all of us up as the militia because every one of us — in federal statues defining the militia, it's every able-bodied male from age 17-45. And for us veterans, it goes up to age 64 because of our prior training and experience.
Right now, under federal statutes, President Trump can call us up as the militia if he sees it necessary, especially for three purposes: to repel invasions, to suppress insurrections, and to execute the laws of the union. And right now, we see all three of those in play. We have — we're facing an ongoing invasion of this country, it has not stopped. We're facing an insurrection by the left. And we're also facing a direct blocking and resistance against enforcing federal law — federal immigration laws, attacking ICE agents, you know, trying to ram them and run them off the road, throwing bricks to their windows. All of that is going on. And so under those three purposes, he can call up the militia.
And the militia is all of us. So the National Guard is part of the militia, which is why it's completely lawful for him to use the National Guard as he has, and he should do more of that, I think, across the country.
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He could just say given the circumstances of an invasion, insurrection, and resistance against federal law being being enforced, I'm calling up the militia, ordering all the men to come together [in] every county, put the veterans in charge of training and organizing all the other men and just have them stand too and await his orders. He can do that and I think he should do that. And so that's what I'll be advocating for from him. So from the bottom, from down the rank and file, we can let President Trump know that we're ready to serve, encourage him to do that, call us up as a militia, order us all to come together in our counties under his command, which gives you complete legal sanction to do what you're doing.
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RHODES: So President Trump is well within his power and authority under the Constitution to bring out the militia — all of the militia, not just the National Guard but the rest of us too. And I think he should.