President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the military to refuse unlawful orders were guilty of “sedition at the highest level” and argued they “should be in jail right now.”
His remarks followed a video featuring several Democratic lawmakers, including Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, calling on service members to reject illegal commands. Days after the video was released and after Trump suggested the lawmakers should face execution, Slotkin was targeted with a bomb threat at her home.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said the “traitors” who appeared in the video “should be in jail right now, not roaming the fake news networks trying to explain what they said was OK.”
“It wasn’t, and never will be!” he wrote. “It was sedition at the highest level, and sedition is a major crime. There can be no other interpretation of what they said!”
Trump had first reacted to the video by calling it “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” and reposting a message from another account that read, “Hang them George Washington would.”
The White House later attempted to soften his comments, with Trump and his team saying he was not literally calling for the execution of the Democratic lawmakers.
In a separate post on Saturday, Trump asserted that “many great legal scholars” support his view that “the Democrat traitors that told the military to disobey my orders, as president, have committed a crime of serious proportion!”
Slotkin, a former CIA officer and Defense Department official, shared the video on Tuesday. In it, she and other Democratic lawmakers with prior service in the military or intelligence community appealed to troops and intelligence professionals to refuse unlawful commands.
“This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” the lawmakers said in the video. “Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
Other lawmakers appearing alongside Slotkin included Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona; Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania; and Reps. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Jason Crow of Colorado.
Trump administration officials and other Republicans sharply criticized the message, even as the video underscored that refusing unlawful orders is a long-standing element of military protocol.
Slotkin’s office said Friday that police responded to a bomb threat at her Michigan residence, though she was not present at the time. U.S. Capitol Police informed her that she would receive round-the-clock security.
“We’ve got law enforcement out in front of my house,” she told MS Now. “It changes things immediately. And leadership climate is set from the top. And if the president is saying you should be hanged, then we shouldn’t be surprised when folks on the ground are going to follow suit and say even worse.”
The lawmakers featured in the video have said they will not be intimidated.
“What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law. Our servicemembers should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders. It is not only the right thing to do, but also our duty,” they said in a joint statement on Thursday.
“In these moments, fear is contagious, but so is courage. We will continue to lead and will not be intimidated,” the statement concluded.
