'Seditious Behavior Punishable by Death'

Susan Estrich on Nov 22, 2025

This week, President Donald Trump called for the execution of six veterans who are members of Congress for posting a video telling members of the military that "they can refuse illegal orders."

On Truth Social, he posted: "It's called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand -- We won't have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET."

And another post: "This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???"

And then a third, "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR punishable by DEATH!"

Trump also reposted multiple posts from other Truth Social users about the video, including one: "Hang them George Washington would. "

The six on the hangman's list include Senators Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Iraq war veteran, and Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy veteran, as well as four members of Congress who served our country, Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan.

In the video, they directly address members of the U.S. military and the intelligence community:

"We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now. Americans trust their military, but that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens ... Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren't just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders ... No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution."

On the day Senator Slotkin posted the video, White House Super Aide Stephen Miller accused the Democratic veterans who made it of "openly calling for insurrection."

As for Slotkin, she pointed out in a separate post, "This is the law. Passed down from our Founding Fathers, to ensure our military upholds its oath to the Constitution -- not a king. Given you're directing much of a military policy, you should buff up on the Uniformed Code of Military Justice."

And that's where things stood when the president weighed in.

Thursday afternoon, after the president's three posts, Karoline Leavitt was said "no" when asked if Trump wants to execute members of Congress, but it was not a laughing matter:

"Many in this room want to talk about the president's response, but not what brought the president to responding in this way. You have sitting members of the United States Congress who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military, to active-duty service members, to members of national security apparatus, encouraging them to defy the president's lawful orders."

She added that the video "perhaps is punishable by law. "I'm not a lawyer," she said, I'll leave that to the Department of Justice and the Department of War to decide.

"Conspiring together" to do what? To tell the truth? No one advised anyone in the ad to reject lawful orders. No one advised anyone to reject any particular order. They carefully made clear that they were addressing illegal and unlawful orders. Those are the orders that pose ethical dilemmas, not the ethical and lawful ones. You don't need to be a lawyer to understand that we are a nation of laws and that the people we are talking about, the members of Congress, the military, the intelligence community, swear oaths to uphold the Constitution.

There are press reports of threats to those who made the video. Rep. DeLuzio acknowledged that he was taking precautions and also taking this seriously. "Donald Trump is the person with the most power who can bring the temperature down, and instead, he threatens to have us killed," he told NBC News. "So for me, it's not about me, it's not about my colleagues. This is about the country, whether we're gonna have a Constitution that means something, and I'm not going to be intimidated."

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