{"id":17276,"date":"2025-11-22T07:33:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T13:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/2025\/11\/22\/trump-says-democrat-video-message-to-military-is-seditious-behavior-punishable-by-death\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T07:33:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T13:33:26","slug":"trump-says-democrat-video-message-to-military-is-seditious-behavior-punishable-by-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/2025\/11\/22\/trump-says-democrat-video-message-to-military-is-seditious-behavior-punishable-by-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Democrat video message to military is \u2018seditious behavior\u2019 punishable by death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to the Controversy<\/h1>\n

President Donald Trump on Thursday accused a half-dozen Democratic lawmakers of sedition \u201cpunishable by DEATH\u201d after the lawmakers \u2014 all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community \u2014 called on U.S. military members to uphold the Constitution and defy \u201cillegal orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 90-second video was first posted early Tuesday from the X account of Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). In it, the six lawmakers \u2014 Slotkin, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan \u2014 speak directly to U.S. service members, whom Slotkin acknowledges are \u201cunder enormous stress and pressure right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution,\u201d Slotkin wrote in the X post.<\/p>\n

Trump on Thursday reposted messages from others about the video, amplifying it with his own words.<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

It marked another flashpoint in the political rhetoric that at times has been thematic in his administrations, as well as among some in his MAGA base. Some Democrats accused him of acting like a king and trying to distract from the soon-to-be-released files about Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sexual abuser.<\/p>\n

What Democrats said in the video<\/h2>\n

With pieces of dialogue spliced together from different members, the lawmakers introduce themselves and their background. They go on to say the Trump administration \u201cis pitting our uniformed military against American citizens.\u201d They call for service members to \u201crefuse illegal orders\u201d and \u201cstand up for our laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The lawmakers conclude the video by encouraging service members to \u201cdon\u2019t give up the ship,\u201d a War of 1812-era phrase attributed to a U.S. Navy captain\u2019s dying command to his crew.<\/p>\n

Although the lawmakers didn\u2019t mention specific circumstances in the video, its release comes as the Trump administration continues attempts to deploy National Guard troops in U.S. cities for various roles, although some have been pulled back and others held up in court.<\/p>\n

Are U.S. troops allowed to disobey orders?<\/h2>\n

Troops, especially uniformed commanders, have a specific obligation to reject an order that\u2019s unlawful, if they make that determination.<\/p>\n

However, while commanders have military lawyers on their staffs to consult with in helping make such a determination, rank-and-file troops who are must carry out those orders are rarely in a similar position.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Broad legal precedence holds that just following orders, colloquially known as the \u201cNuremberg defense\u201d as it was used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler, doesn\u2019t absolve troops.<\/p>\n

However, the U.S. military legal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ, will punish troops for failing to follow an order should it turn out to be lawful. Troops can be criminally charged with Article 90 of the UCMJ, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and Article 92, failure to obey an order.<\/p>\n

How Trump and others responded<\/h2>\n

On Thursday, Trump reposted to social media an article about the video, adding that it was \u201creally bad, and Dangerous to our Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!!\u201d Trump went on. \u201cLOCK THEM UP???\u201d He called for the lawmakers\u2019 arrest and trial, adding in a separate post that it was \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also reposted more than a dozen comments from other accounts criticizing Democrats, including one that stated \u201cHANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked during a White House briefing on Thursday about the intent of Trump\u2019s messages, press secretary Karoline Leavitt instead homed in on the Democrats\u2019 message, which she posited \u201cperhaps is punishable by law.\u201d Leavitt went on to say that any incitement to \u201cdefy the chain of command, not to follow lawful orders\u201d is \u201ca very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do, and they should be held accountable, and that\u2019s what the president wants to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

Democrats were swift to react to Trump\u2019s words, with Senate Democratic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction to the Controversy President Donald Trump on Thursday accused a half-dozen Democratic lawmakers of sedition \u201cpunishable by DEATH\u201d after the lawmakers \u2014 all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community \u2014 called on U.S. military members to uphold the Constitution and defy \u201cillegal orders.\u201d The 90-second video was first posted early Tuesday from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":17278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/MCXCPH3FSJCMHKUKBJT3FP24TI.jpg?auth=06b748d321ada47b22d5469ffeaec877919f2d829a432e55dadd30f3cd431287&quality=80&width=1200&height=630&smart=true","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17279,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions\/17279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}