The President of the United States is calling for the execution of six Democratic lawmakers—all military veterans or former intelligence officers—because they reminded US service members of their oath to the Constitution.
That’s not hyperbole or exaggeration. That’s an actual thing that happened yesterday.
Donald Trump spent hours on social media demanding that Senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, along with Representatives Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan, and Jason Crow be arrested, tried, and put to death for “seditious behavior” and “treason.”
Their crime? Creating a two-minute video explaining that members of the military have a right—and sometimes a duty—to disobey unlawful orders.
The same oath that the president, in theory, took as well. The president is saying that elected officials of the opposing party should be put to death for telling people to remember their oath to the Constitution.
This comes after weeks of MAGA Republicans insisting that Democrats needed to “tone down the rhetoric” following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It comes after the assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, who was among several Democratic officials on the killer’s target list.
And now the president is calling for elected officials to be put to death for reminding service members of their constitutional oath.
The video is worth watching (though, bizarrely, many news sites wouldn’t post it).
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.Don’t give up the ship.
— Senator Elissa Slotkin (@slotkin.senate.gov) 2025-11-18T13:31:25.167Z
It’s less than two minutes. The six lawmakers simply remind service members that they have a right, and sometimes a duty, to disobey illegal orders.
Trump did not react kindly to this. He started out by SCREAMING that the lawmakers who did this engaged in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL” and that they “should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL” and that “Their words cannot be allowed to stand.”
That post caused the usual unhinged cultists who egg the senile old man on to try to one-up him, and Trump just kept reposting them all.
Eventually, of course, some of his followers insisted that reminding soldiers of their oath is “treason” and that they were there for “traitors” who should be hanged. And the president of the United States just kept reposting it all.
And, so, it wasn’t long before he directly called for them to be put to death.
Let’s be clear about how unhinged this is, going step by step.
First, what these elected officials said was absolutely true. The military code of conduct does require that they obey lawful orders, which by default means they need not follow unlawful orders. And indeed, the Rules for Courts-Martial make it clear that the defenses for disobeying an order includes if it is unlawful. And the standard there is that “a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the orders to be unlawful.”
Rule 916(d) of the rules states clearly:
Obedience to orders. It is a defense to any offense that the accused was acting pursuant to orders unless the accused knew the orders to be unlawful or a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the orders to be unlawful*.*
Second, disobeying an order may subject you to a court-martial, but not “sedition” and being sentenced to death. I mean, this should go without saying, but what the fuck?
Third, simply telling people about their rights and obligations under the oath they took to the Constitution is obviously and clearly protected under the First Amendment. Anyone who still thinks the president believes in free speech is a fraud.
Fourth, beyond being protected speech, this has nothing to do with “sedition” or “treason.” Sedition is stirring up rebellion against the government. Treason means levying war against the United States. Reminding service members of their oath to the Constitution and their legal right to refuse unlawful orders is neither. It’s the exact opposite—it’s reinforcing their duties as US service members.
And, look, even if these elected officials had done something wrong (they haven’t), and even if it broke the law (it didn’t), and even if it was seditious (it’s not even remotely close), it’s still wrong and ridiculously, unfathomably out of line for the president to be saying they deserve the death penalty.
Of course, Trump’s tantrum has amplified this message far beyond what the original video would have reached. And according to a Military Times survey, 80% of US troops already understand their duty to disobey illegal orders anyway. All Trump’s rage has accomplished is reminding even more people—including his own supporters in uniform—of something they already knew.
Remember: this comes right after his MAGA colleagues spent weeks demanding Democrats “lower the temperature” following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Yet here’s the president telling his followers that these officials deserve to die, forcing Democrats to alert the Capitol Police and the House Sergeant at Arms to protect these lawmakers and their families.
It’s fucking insane.
Congress should be calling for impeachment. Instead, you have the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, doing his usual run for cover routine by claiming that “attorneys will have to parse the language.”
Mike Johnson on Trump calling for Democrats to be executed: “Attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that.”
That’s a hell of a position from someone who, two months ago, insisted that calling Republicans “fascist” was tantamount to inciting violence:
Mike Johnson: “People have got to stop framing simple policy disagreements in terms of existential threats to our democracy. You can’t call the other side fascists and enemies of the state and not understand that there are some deranged people in our society who will take that as cues to act.”
Seems like quite the double standard. When the president literally calls for his political enemies to be put to death, he deflects and wants “the attorneys” to “parse the language,” but should anyone refer to the authoritarian attacks on the institutions of the United States, he’ll immediately condemn you for inciting violence.
But, of course, that is the MAGA way: they can say what they want, you have to shut up. They can encourage and incite violence, but anything you say that’s a little mean to them is beyond the pale.
History will remember those who did the right thing and those who enabled our mad king and his unhinged violent fantasies.
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