{"id":63444,"date":"2025-11-21T08:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T08:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/63444\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T08:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T08:48:14","slug":"trump-calls-democrats-traitors-for-urging-military-to-refuse-illegal-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/63444\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump calls Democrats ‘traitors’ for urging military to ‘refuse illegal orders’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump on Thursday said he believed Democratic lawmakers who publicly urged active service members to \u201crefuse illegal orders\u201d amounted to seditious behavior, which he said should be punishable by death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand \u2014 We won\u2019t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,\u201d Trump said in a social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump went on to amplify more than a dozen social media posts from other people, who in reaction to Trump\u2019s post called for the Democrats to be arrested, charged and in one instance hanged. Trump then continued: \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s remarks were in reaction to a joint video released by six Democrat lawmakers<\/a> in which they urged military and intelligence personnel to \u201crefuse illegal orders.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Democratic lawmakers who released the video \u2014 Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Michigan Sen. Alyssa Slotkin, Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Deluzio, New Hampshire Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Pennsylvania Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and Colorado Rep. Jason Crow \u2014 served in the military or as intelligence officers.<\/p>\n

They did not specify which orders they were referring to. But they said the Trump administration was \u201cpitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professional against American citizens\u201d and that threats to the Constitution were coming \u201cfrom right here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video, which was posted on Tuesday, quickly drew criticism from Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who characterized it as \u201cStage 4 [Trump Derangement Syndrome].\u201d But Trump, who first reacted to the video on Thursday, saw the video as more than partisan speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???\u201d Trump said in another post.<\/p>\n

When asked Thursday if the president wanted to execute members of Congress, as suggested in one of his social media posts, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said \u201cno.\u201d <\/p>\n

But, Leavitt said, the president does want to see them be \u201cheld accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a very, very dangerous message and it is perhaps punishable by law,\u201d Leavitt said. \u201cI\u2019ll leave that to the Department of justice and the Department of War to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the law says<\/p>\n

Under a federal law known as \u201cseditious conspiracy,\u201d it is a crime for two or more individuals to \u201cconspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States\u201d or to \u201cprevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States\u201d by force. <\/p>\n

A seditious conspiracy charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Federal courts and legal scholars have long emphasized that seditious conspiracy charges apply only to coordinated efforts to use force against the government, rather than political dissent. <\/p>\n

The last time federal prosecutors pursued seditious conspiracy charges was in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges for plotting to prevent by force the transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden. <\/p>\n

Among the convicted individuals was former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, whose 22-year sentence was the stiffest of any of the Jan. 6 rioters. Trump pardoned him earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Hours after the president\u2019s posts, the six Democratic lawmakers issued a joint statement, calling on Americans to \u201cunite and condemn the President\u2019s calls for our murder and political violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law,\u201d the lawmakers said in a statement posted to X.<\/a> \u201cOur service members should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders in Washington and across the country denounced Trump\u2019s post. <\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement with other Democratic leaders that Trump\u2019s comments were \u201cdisgusting and dangerous death threats against members of Congress.\u201d They added that they had been in contact with U.S. Capitol Police to ensure the safety of the Democrat lawmakers and their families. <\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom reacted to the posts by saying Trump \u201cis sick in the head\u201d for calling for the death of Democratic lawmakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump on Thursday said he believed Democratic lawmakers who publicly urged active service members to \u201crefuse illegal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[339,38196,11071,38195,38198,38194,48,52,51,721,47,50,49,2324,1703,5767,3020,38197,38193,2429,1519],"class_list":["post-63444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-death","tag-democratic-lawmaker","tag-force","tag-illegal-order","tag-joint-statement","tag-joint-video","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-law","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-member","tag-military","tag-post","tag-president-trump","tag-seditious-behavior","tag-seditious-conspiracy","tag-thursday","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}