By Danny Kemp, AFP
Donald Trump. Photo: AFP / Brendan Smialowski
US President Donald Trump has evoked the death penalty for Democratic lawmakers who urged the military to refuse illegal orders, calling them traitors and accusing them of sedition.
The group of Democratic senators and representatives, who all have military or intelligence service backgrounds, made the comments in a video posted Tuesday on X.
They did not specify which orders they were referring to, but Trump's administration has come under fire for its employment of US forces both at home and abroad.
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r
"This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???," Trump said on Truth Social.
He then added in a later post: "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"
Mark Kelly. Photo: ANDREW LEYDEN / AFP
Trump also reposted a message from a user urging him to "hang them" and saying that the first US president, George Washington, would have done the same.
The lawmakers behind the message included Senator Mark Kelly, a former member of the Navy 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".
"Right now, the threats to our constitution aren't just coming from abroad, but from right here at home," they said, adding: "You can refuse illegal orders."
'Not partisan'
Inside the United States, Trump has ordered the National Guard into multiple US cities, in many cases against the wishes of local officials, in a bid to bring allegedly rampant unrest under control.
Abroad, Trump has ordered strikes on a series of alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have left more than 80 people dead since early September.
Experts say the strikes 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 the "Steady State" said in an open letter on Thursday that they strongly supported the six Democrats.
They said the principle of military personnel refusing unlawful orders was "not controversial. It is not partisan. It is not new. And it is the bedrock of lawful civilian control of the military."
The White House and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Wednesday both slammed the message from the Democratic lawmakers.
Hegseth described it as "Stage 4 TDS", or "Trump Derangement Syndrome" - a term used by the right to mock the president's opponents.
Trump previously evoked the death penalty in 2023 in relation to his former top US military officer Mark Milley, who became 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 stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, Trump said "in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!"
'Lighting a match'
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later walked back Trump's suggestion, saying that the president did not want to see members of Congress executed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
She still lashed out at the lawmakers, saying: "Why aren't you talking about what these members of Congress are doing to encourage and incite violence?"
The Democratic Party reacted furiously to Trump's remarks.
"Trump just called for the death of Democratic elected officials. Absolutely vile," the party posted on its official X account.
The lawmakers in the video vowed not to be deterred by Trump's threats, saying they were "veterans and national security professionals who love this country" and had sworn an oath to defend the US constitution.
"That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. No threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation," they said.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of fanning the flames of violence among his supporters.
"He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline," Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.
Trump's death penalty comments came as he faces perhaps the most political pressure since his return to the White House in January.
In recent weeks his grip on the Republican party has been shaken by the scandal over disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, and by off-year elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia in which Democrats scored major wins.
- AFP
