- Six Democratic members of Congress posted a video challenging members of the American military and intelligence communities to "refuse illegal orders."
- President Donald Trump used social media to attack video posters — calling them traitors.
- Responses to the video, and Trump's subsequent response, triggered partisan reactions.
President Donald Trump offered a blunt response Thursday to six Democratic lawmakers who released a joint video telling Americans serving in the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”
“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country,” posted Trump on his Truth Social account. “Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???”
A short time later, Trump added this post: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
The president’s bellicose posts came after six Democratic members of Congress released a video entitled “Don’t Give Up the Ship.”
The video features Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Chris Deluzio,D-Pa., and Chrissy Houlahan, Pa.
Each of the six Democrats are veterans of either the U.S. Armed Forces or the nation’s intelligence community.
Kelly and Deluzio served in the Navy; Crow was an Army Ranger; Houlahan served in the Air Force; Slotkin worked for the CIA; and Goodlander was an intelligence officer.
In the short video featuring audio snippets, the six lawmakers said they were speaking directly to members of the military and the intelligence community “who take risks each day” to keep the country safe.
“We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,” said Slotkin.
Americans, added Goodlander, trust their military — but that trust is at risk.
“This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.”
The video never specifies what those “unlawful orders” might be — but it arrives amid ongoing division about the Trump administration’s use of National Guard troops in several American cities and multiple U.S. military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as part of counternarcotics efforts.
While open to wide interpretation and context, an “unlawful” or “illegal” order for military personnel is broadly defined as a directive that violates the law, military regulations or constitutional law — or directs the commission of a crime or unethical act.
All who serve in the U.S. military and intelligence community, the video notes, swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad — but from right here at home.”
The video then shifts to a call to action that likely prompted Trump’s social media ire on Thursday:
“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.”
It’s a difficult time to be a public servant, added the six Democrats.
“Your vigilance is critical — and know that we have your back. Because now, more than ever, the American people need you.”
The video concludes with a War of 1812 reference to Navy Capt. James Lawrence, whose dying command to his embattled crew on the USS Chesapeake was, “Don’t give up the ship!”
White House defends Trump’s posts
In a Thursday press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if Trump wants members of Congress to be executed.
“No,” Leavitt replied, before adding that attention should be placed on members of Congress “who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military … encouraging them to defy the president’s lawful orders.”
Leavitt said that if members of the military choose to break the chain of command it could “inspire chaos” and “incite violence.”
Leavitt accused the lawmakers in the video of “leaning into their credentials” to signal to people to defy their commander in chief and betray their oaths of office.
“That is a very, very dangerous message — and it perhaps is punishable by law.”
A reporter noted that the Democratic lawmakers in the video were referencing rejecting “illegal orders.”
“They’re suggesting that the president has given illegal orders — which he has not,” said Leavitt. “Every single order that is given to this United States military by this commander in chief and through this command chain of command, through the Secretary of War, is lawful, and the courts have proven that.”
A Republican’s response: ‘Inching right up to treason’
The challenge to the Democrats’ message to “refuse illegal orders” is prompting a Republican response beyond the White House.
In an interview Wednesday with The Heartlander, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, called the Democrats’ video “a total loss of sanity.”
“I just can’t believe these people — who are now actually urging military officers, intelligence officers, to disobey the chain of command and subvert the United States government.
“I’ve seen the video, and at first I thought it was a deep fake. … But these people are serious — and they’re seriously nuts.”
Hawley added such actions are “a common thread” of the Democratic Party.
“I hope that nobody who works in the United States military, nobody who works in the United States intelligence services, will be stupid enough to take any advice from these people, because the advice that they’re giving you is just inching right up to treason,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended Trump’s declaration Thursday that the Democrats featured in the video engaged in “sedition,” Politico reported.
Johnson said it was the Democrats who were acting in a “wildly inappropriate” way by suggesting that military members should disobey unlawful orders from Trump. By posting that sedition is punishable by death, according to Johnson, Trump was simply “defining the crime of sedition.”
“That is a factual statement,” Johnson said, adding attorneys would have to “parse” the language in the criminal act.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., denounced Trump’s comments, saying the president “is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline.”
“Every senator, every representative, every American regardless of party should condemn this immediately and without qualification,” he said. “Because if we don’t draw a line here, there is no line left to draw,” Politico reported.