Former President Donald Trump has sharply rebuked a group of Democratic lawmakers who urged U.S. service members to disobey unlawful orders, calling their action “sedition” and demanding that they be jailed. His remarks escalate tensions ahead of the next election cycle, spotlighting the fraught relationship between partisan politics and military loyalty.
Subhead 1: Trump doubles down, uses inflammatory language
Trump denounced the lawmakers late Saturday in a social media post, declaring: “The traitors that told the military to disobey my orders should be in jail right now, not roaming the fake news networks.” He labelled their video message an act of high-level sedition and insisted the matter cannot be interpreted any other way. He also reiterated an earlier comment in which he suggested capital punishment for those involved.
Subhead 2: Lawmakers’ video calls on troops to follow the law
The 90-second clip released by Democratic legislators — including ex-CIA officer Senator Elissa Slotkin — featured officials with military or intelligence backgrounds. They cautioned troops that they “can refuse illegal orders” and argued the Trump administration was positioning the military against American citizens. While they did not enumerate specific orders they considered illegal, the message coincided with the administration’s deployment of federal forces to cities governed by Democrats.
Subhead 3: Legal and political implications under scrutiny
Legal scholars say service members swear allegiance to the Constitution, not any individual commander-in-chief, and note that military law prohibits obeying clearly unlawful commands. At the same time, some experts warn that public statements about disobeying orders by lawmakers risk undermining the chain of command and could be interpreted as inciting insubordination.
