More than 90 Republican foreign policy veterans have pledged to oppose Donald Trump, saying his proposals would undermine US security.
"Mr. Trump's own statements lead us to conclude that as president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world," the signatories wrote in a open letter on Wednesday.
"Furthermore, his expansive view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors poses a distinct threat to civil liberty in the United States," said the letter, which was posted on a blog called War on the Rocks.
The signatories include Robert Zoellick, a former World Bank president and deputy secretary of state; former US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; and Dov Zakheim, a top Pentagon official under President George W. Bush.
They represent both centrist Republican foreign policy circles and neoconservatives who favour a robust US international role and wielded clout during Bush's 2001-2009 presidency.
On Thursday, Trump in an interview with ABC News flatly rejected the criticism in the letter and blasted the country's military leaders as ineffective.
Bryan McGrath, a retired US Navy officer and adviser to Republican Mitt Romney's unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign who helped organise the letter, said at least two people declined to sign because of concerns it would fuel Trump's campaign theme of being an anti-Washington DC candidate opposed by the establishment.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked to sign but chose not to, in keeping with her general practice of not signing on to such group letters, a spokeswoman for the Stanford University professor said.
The list of signatures, which numbered 60 when the letter was released on Wednesday night, had grown to 94 by Thursday afternoon.
Trump has alarmed some Republicans with vows to shred international trade deals. Many fear a Trump presidency would severely strain ties with military allies and are concerned about his stated willingness to work more closely with Russia.
Trump also has criticised the Republican Party for its backing of Bush's 2003 Iraq invasion.
Max Boot, a foreign policy adviser to Romney's 2012 campaign and supporter of the Iraq invasion, was among the letter's signers and said he "would sooner work for (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-un than for Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is objectively more dangerous than Kim Jong-un and not as stable."
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