Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that Democratic lawmakers in Congress should be arrested, put on trial, and potentially executed for acts of “sedition.” The outrageous call was not met with universal condemnation by members of the president’s own party, which responded largely by criticizing Democrats, with some Republicans softly rejecting the idea that they should be killed.
On Thursday, the president launched into a series of Truth Social posts apparently accusing a group of Democrats, Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) — all of them military veterans — of sedition. The group’s supposed treason? Publishing a video earlier this week encouraging members of the military to honor their oath and “refuse illegal orders.”
According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), members of the military are required to obey “lawful” orders from their commanding officers. Courts have upheld that members of the armed forces are required to follow the law, and that the order of a commanding officer is not a justification for the commission of a crime or otherwise illegal act under U.S. or international law, or that would outright violate their oath. The Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) handbook for Army commanders advises that soldiers be trained on their “duty to disobey” an order that could potentially violate the laws of armed conflict.
The president — who is obsessed with blind loyalty and appears to believe the military is his personal army — took the lawmakers’ video as an outright attempt at treason. “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT,” he added in another post.
The president also included over a dozen re-posts of comments related to Democrats statement. “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!” One read. “It’s called a seditious conspiracy and every one of them should be frog marched out of their homes at 3:00 AM with FOX News cameras filming the whole thing,” another Truth Social user promoted by Trump commented.
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The response from Republicans in Congress was teed off by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) who combined his signature plea of ignorance with a suggestion that the president’s call for their colleagues to be hanged was no big deal.
Johnson told CNN that the Democrats’ call for members of the military to refuse an illegal order — as they are expected to do — was “wildly irresponsible” and “very dangerous.”
“What I read was he was defining the crime of sedition. That is a factual statement,” Johnson added, absurdly implying that the president had simply been providing the public with a clinical legal definition instead of demanding his critics be arrested and executed.
When asked to respond to Trump’s comments, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (D-Tenn.), told Newsmax that Democrats have “stage four Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Members of Trump’s administration also leapt to excuse the president.
At a White House Press briefing later on Thursday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the president did not want to have members of Congress executed (the posts remain on his profile as of Friday morning). “The sanctity of our military rests on the chain of command, and if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed. It can lead to chaos, and that’s what these members of Congress who swore an oath to abide by the Constitution are essentially encouraging,” Leavitt told reporters.
Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, told Fox News that “there is nothing graver that you could possibly say as a United States senator than encouraging, urging, directing members of the armed forces of the United States, or the clandestine services of the United States, to defy their president, defy their chain of command, defy their superiors.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump’s former personal attorney — suggested to Fox News that the video might constitute a “crime.”
“I think they should be held to account and those congressmen should be required to answer questions about why they did what they did and the American people deserve that, and so does President Trump,” he added.
Some Republican lawmakers rejected the president’s rhetoric, but made a point to condemn their democratic colleagues in the process
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-Mont.) told reporters that he certainly didn’t “agree with the president’s conclusion on how we ought to handle it,” but claimed that the video had been “ill advised, unnecessary and clearly provocative.” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told NOTUS that Democrats’ video was “not wise,” but that “the president suggesting the congressmen be hanged is even less wise.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — a frequent Trump critic — cheekily told Huff Post that he is “against hanging other senators. I know that’s outlandish.”
“You can ask me again next week, but I think hanging senators might be overkill,” he added.
In a joint statement, the Democratic lawmakers wrote that “what’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law. Our service members 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.”
Sen. Kelly wrote on X that he has “had a missile blow up next to my airplane, been shot at dozens of times by anti-aircraft fire, and launched into orbit — all for my country.”
“I never thought I’d see a President call for my execution,” he added. “Trump doesn’t understand the Constitution, and we’re all less safe for it.”
Then again, this is the same president who stood by as an enraged mob of his supporters attempted to hunt down his former vice president, Mike Pence, in the halls of the Capitol and hang him. Republicans in Congress didn’t care when one of their own was threatened with the gallows, so it’s not surprising that they’re not enraged that the president is suggesting the opposition should meet a similar fate.
From Rolling Stone US
