Trump Floats Death Penalty For Democrats Urging Military To Refuse Orders
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday floated the death penalty for Democratic lawmakers who called on the military to reject illegal orders, calling them traitors and accusing them of sedition.
The group of Democratic senators and representatives, all with military or intelligence backgrounds, made the comments in a video posted on X on Tuesday.
They did not specify which orders they were referring to, but the Trump administration has come under criticism for its employment of US forces both domestically and abroad.
Trump said on Truth Social: “This is truly evil and dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. PROFITABLE BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM ???” he said.
He then added in a later post: “BAD BEHAVIOR is punishable by DEATH!”
Trump also reposted a message from a user urging him to “hang them” and saying the first US president, George Washington, would have done the same.
Lawmakers behind the message included Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy member and NASA astronaut, and Senator Elissa Slotkin, who served with the CIA in Iraq.
The six accused the Trump administration of “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.”
“Currently, threats to our constitution come not only from abroad but also from within the country,” they said, adding: “You can reject illegal orders.”
– ‘Not partisan’ –
In the United States, Trump has ordered the National Guard to multiple U.S. cities in an effort to contain allegedly widespread unrest, in many cases against the wishes of local officials.
Abroad, Trump has ordered attacks on a series of ships allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed more than 80 people since early September.
Experts say the attacks are illegal and amount to extrajudicial killings, even if they target known traffickers.
A group of more than 300 former national security officials calling themselves “Stable State” said in an open letter Thursday that they strongly support the six Democrats.
They said the principle that military personnel reject illegal orders “is not controversial, is not partisan, is not new, and forms the basis of lawful civilian control of the military.”
White House and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth sharply criticized the Democratic lawmakers’ message on Wednesday.
Hegseth described this as “Stage 4 TDS” or “Trump Derangement Syndrome”; A term used by the right to mock the president’s opponents.
Trump had previously floated the death penalty in 2023 regarding former US military officer Mark Milley, who has become an outspoken critic of the president.
After Milley told journalist Bob Woodward that he had secretly called his Chinese counterpart amid tensions after Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol in January 2021, Trump said “in the past the penalty would have been DEATH!” he said.
