President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington, as first lady Melania Trump watches at right. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump reposted and endorsed comments calling for the arrest, prosecution and even death penalty for Democratic members of Congress—several of them former military and intelligence officers—for releasing a short, anodyne video reminding service members that they are legally required to refuse unlawful orders.
Trump calling for Democratic politicians to be put on trial for reminding soldiers/intelligence officers to follow “lawful” orders.
In posts on his social media platform, Trump described the short video as “seditious behavior,” “seditious conspiracy,” “treason” and “punishable by DEATH!” He amplified threats from his far-right supporters that the Democrats be “frog-marched out of their homes at 3 AM” with television cameras present, “hung” or treated as “domestic terrorists.” Trump’s own posts demanded: “LOCK THEM UP,” “An example MUST BE SET” and “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Trump posting on Truth Social that Democrats reminding soldiers to follow lawful orders is “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Never before in American history has a sitting president spoken the way Donald Trump did this week. Not even during the Civil War did Abraham Lincoln demand the execution of the political leaders of the Confederacy.
Trump’s calls for executing Democratic lawmakers came just days after his White House meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the butcher of Saudi Arabia who ordered the assassination and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The meeting ended in a confrontation with an ABC News reporter who dared to ask about MBS and the murder.
In front of the autocrat, Trump berated the reporter as “insubordinate.” The atmosphere of the exchange echoed Henry II’s infamous exclamation about Thomas Becket—“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
Trump’s threats against Democrats were quickly reinforced by the most openly authoritarian elements within the Republican Party. Appearing on Fox News, senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller declared that the Democrats’ video amounted to a “general call for rebellion from the CIA and the armed services.” Miller demanded that the Democratic lawmakers “resign in disgrace and never return to public office again.”
On Sean Hannity’s program, Trump’s Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche described the video as “a disgusting and inappropriate display” and threatened prosecution, insisting that “we will take a very close look.” Blanche’s threats to prosecute are not idle. Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered investigations into Democrats listed in convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s emails.
These statements are part of a coordinated attempt to criminalize even the mildest assertion that soldiers or intelligence officers retain any legal obligations beyond personal loyalty to Trump. The White House and its media apparatus are working to redefine basic constitutional norms as “sedition” while simultaneously preparing to deploy the military domestically.
The statements from the Republicans are even more remarkable when compared to the content in the video, which is nothing more than a pro-government appeal that contains no call to defy the Trump administration, no denunciation of Trump and no suggestion of disobedience beyond the well-established duty to refuse an illegal order.
The video featured six “CIA Democrats” drawn directly from the military-intelligence apparatus, including Senator Elissa Slotkin (Michigan), a former CIA officer; Senator Mark Kelley (Arizona), a former Navy captain; Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (New Hampshire), an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve from 2010 to 2022; Representative Chris DeLuzio (Pennsylvania), a former Navy surface warfare officer; Representative Jason Crow (Colorado), a former Army Ranger and paratrooper; and Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania).
That these representatives released the video now raises the basic question: What do they know that they are not telling the American people?
In the video, the six politicians addressed “members of the military” and the “intelligence community,” with Senator Elissa Slotkin opening: “We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now.”
Representatives Elissa Slotkin (Democrat-Michigan), left, and Liz Cheney (Republican-Wyoming) leave a campaign rally Tuesday, November 1, 2022, in East Lansing, Michigan, where Slotkin received support from Cheney. [AP Photo/Carlos Osorio]
Speaking squarely in defense of the capitalist state, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan declared, “Americans trust their military.” Representative Chris DeLuzio warned that “trust is at risk.”
The group then admitted, in the clearest terms, that the US government is now turning the repressive apparatus inward. “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” they said.
Senator Mark Kelly added, “Our laws are clear—you can refuse illegal orders.”
The video ended with a full-throated affirmation of the CIA, Army, Navy and Air Force, urging them to “stand up for our laws, our Constitution, and who we are as Americans” and to “not give up the ship.”
The Democrats’ defense of the military and intelligence agencies comes after the same agencies have spent the last two months carrying out lethal and illegal strikes on small vessels in the Caribbean and off the coast of Venezuela. These killings, presented to the public as routine anti-smuggling operations, have raised internal legal objections within the military itself. According to multiple press reports, at least one senior judge advocate at U.S. Southern Command warned that some strikes may violate US and international law.
Amid these operations, Admiral Alvin Holsey, commander of U.S. Southern Command, is retiring early after less than a year in the position. His departure comes in the exact period when these murderous maritime operations have intensified.
Trump’s unpopularity is currently at levels unseen except in the immediate aftermath of the failed January 6 coup. In response to mass protests against his administration, Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy active duty troops into American cities ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. His administration has already used federal agents against demonstrators and immigrants.
In North Carolina and around the country, students, workers and community members are protesting and increasingly organizing independently to resist federal kidnapping operations targeting immigrants.
These internal fissures help explain the Democrats’ video. It is not an act of opposition to Trump. It is an attempt by a faction of the national security establishment to stabilize the situation and to preserve the legitimacy of capitalist institutions.
Despite Trump’s extraordinary threats, the Democratic Party has responded with its usual combination of cowardice and complicity. None of the Democrats featured in the video have called for Trump’s impeachment. None have called for soldiers or immigration agents to refuse participation in Trump’s domestic repression. None challenge the administration’s illegal wars abroad from the genocide in Gaza to the ongoing US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine.
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