President Donald Trump on Thursday accused six Democratic congressmen of sedition, all of whom are military and intelligence veterans, after they called on U.S. military personnel to uphold the Constitution and defy “unlawful orders.”
The 90-second video was first posted from Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s X account early Tuesday. In it, Slotkin and Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan speak directly to U.S. service members, who Slotkin acknowledged are “under tremendous stress and pressure right now.”
“The American people need you to stand up for our laws and Constitution,” Slotkin wrote on the X-Post.
President Trump on Thursday reposted messages from others about the video and amplified it with his own words. This became a new flashpoint in the political rhetoric that has been an occasional theme not only in his administration, but also among some of his MAGA base. Some Democrats accused him of acting like a kingpin and trying to distract from other news, such as the soon-to-be-released dossier on disgraced financier and sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
What the Democrats said in the video
Connecting conversations between various members of Congress, the members introduce themselves and their backgrounds. They go on to say that the Trump administration is pitting “our uniformed military against the American people,” calling on service members to “refuse unlawful orders” and “uphold our laws.”
The lawmakers end the video by exhorting service members to “keep the ship out,” a phrase they say originates from a U.S. Navy captain’s dying orders to his crew during the War of 1812.
Although the lawmakers did not mention specific circumstances in the video, the announcement comes as the Trump administration continues its efforts to deploy the National Guard to U.S. cities for a variety of roles, some of which have been withdrawn and others pending in court.
Can the U.S. military be allowed to disobey orders?
Military forces, especially uniformed commanders, have certain duties to refuse illegal orders if they so choose.
However, while commanders have military lawyers they can consult when making such decisions, the rank-and-file soldiers tasked with carrying out these orders are rarely in a similar position.
Extensive legal precedent holds that merely following orders known colloquially as the “Defense of Nuremberg” does not absolve troops of the order, which Nazi officials unsuccessfully used to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler’s regime.
But the U.S. Military Code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), punishes troops who disobey orders if the orders are found to be lawful. Troops can be criminally charged under UCMJ Article 90 for willful disobedience to senior officers and under Article 92 for failure to comply with orders.
How did Trump and others react?
On Thursday, President Trump reposted an article about the video on social media, adding his own comment: “It’s truly awful and dangerous to our country.”
“Seditious act by a traitor!!!” Trump continued. “Lock them up??” he added in another post, calling for the arrest and trial of the lawmakers, adding that it was “a seditious act punishable by death.”
Steady State, which describes itself as “a network of more than 300 national and homeland security professionals who defend strong, principled policies, the rule of law, and democracy,” wrote in a post on Substack on Thursday that the lawmakers’ call “simply restates what every officer and enlisted military member already knows: illegal orders can and should be refused. This is not a political opinion. It’s a principle.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell disputed the idea that an illegal order was issued.
“Our military follows orders and our civilians follow lawful orders,” Parnell told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We love the Constitution. These politicians are insane.”
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Associated Press writer Konstantin Tropin contributed to this report.
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Meg Kinard can be contacted at: http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
