{"id":296169,"date":"2025-11-20T20:34:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/296169\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T20:34:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:34:23","slug":"trump-says-telling-military-to-refuse-illegal-orders-punishable-by-death-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/296169\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says telling military to refuse illegal orders \u2018punishable by death\u2019 – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. President Donald\u00a0Trump<\/a> on Thursday assailed Democratic lawmakers who told members of U.S. military<\/a> they must refuse any illegal orders, calling them traitors who could face execution.<\/p>\n

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At a news briefing later, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said \u201cno\u201d when asked whether the president wanted to execute members of Congress, but she castigated the Democrats<\/a> for encouraging members of the\u00a0military\u00a0to defy the chain of command.<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0reposted an article about a video released on Tuesday by six Democratic lawmakers who served in the\u00a0military\u00a0or in the intelligence community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!\u201d the Republican president wrote in a Truth Social post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country,\u201d\u00a0Trump\u00a0wrote in an earlier post. \u201cTheir words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???\u201d<\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s posts on Thursday are the latest example of him calling for punishment of those he sees as political enemies. Since returning to the presidency in January,\u00a0Trump\u00a0has occasionally called for imprisoning adversaries and his Justice Department has targeted critics such as former federal officials\u00a0John Bolton\u00a0and\u00a0James Comey.<\/p>\n

In November 2021,\u00a0Trump\u00a0defended the chants of his supporters who called for hanging Vice President Mike Pence as they stormed the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot on January 6 of that year.<\/p>\n

Top Democrats in Congress said\u00a0Trump\u2019s words could incite violence. House of Representatives leaders said they contacted U.S. Capitol Police to ensure the Democratic lawmakers\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n

For civilians, U.S. law has no provision for a charge of sedition, although \u201cseditious conspiracy\u201d carries a maximum penalty of 20 years. For troops, the Uniform Code of\u00a0Military\u00a0Justice includes a section on sedition, with possible penalties including death.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrump says U.S. cities should be \u2018training grounds\u2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The lawmakers include Senators Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Iraq war veteran, and Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy veteran, as well as Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan.<\/p>\n

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In the video, they directly address members of the U.S.\u00a0military\u00a0and intelligence community, saying the\u00a0Trump\u00a0administration was pitting those institutions against the American people and threatening tenets of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

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Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders,\u201d said Kelly. The other lawmakers offer a similar refrain before Slotkin concluded: \u201cWe need you to stand up for our laws, our Constitution. Don\u2019t give up the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

After\u00a0Trump\u00a0published his post, Slotkin wrote on X that she and her colleagues would continue to defend the Constitution. \u201cNo threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation,\u201d Slotkin wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadians in Hamas: The operative, leader and financier\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tWhy does Pierre Poilievre think next time will be different?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The lawmakers did not refer to any particular incident or scenario, and did not provide any examples of orders that they might consider illegal.<\/p>\n

Some Democrats in Congress have been sharply critical of\u00a0Trump\u2019s\u00a0military\u00a0strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the southern Caribbean and the Pacific, focusing on the legality and lack of transparency. There have also been concerns that\u00a0Trump\u00a0will launch an attack on Venezuela itself.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tU.S. confirms another \u2018kinetic strike\u2019 carred out alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Democrats have also challenged\u00a0Trump\u2019s attempts to deploy National Guard personnel to support immigration crackdowns in U.S. cities.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCalling for the execution of senators and members of Congress for reminding our troops of that is chilling behavior we should expect from authoritarians \u2026 not the president of the United States,\u201d U.S. Senator Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one of my Republican colleagues needs to stand up and swiftly condemn this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans were largely silent. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime\u00a0Trump\u00a0ally, said he did not know of any illegal orders issued to the U.S.\u00a0military\u00a0and that the Democrats \u201cowe it to the country\u201d to be specific.<\/p>\n

Senator Chuck Schumer, who leads his chamber\u2019s Democrats, called\u00a0Trump\u2019s posts an outright threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen,\u201d Schumer said in the Senate. \u201cHe is lighting a match soaked with gasoline.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. President Donald\u00a0Trump on Thursday assailed Democratic lawmakers who told members of U.S. military they must refuse any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22158,1376,43,44,41,39,42,40,36422,2845],"class_list":["post-296169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-democrats","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-u-s-military","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}