Trump said Democrats’ video message to the military was “seditious behavior” punishable by death

President Donald Trump on Thursday charged six Democratic lawmakers with sedition “punishable by death” after the lawmakers — all veterans of the armed forces and the intelligence community — called on members of the U.S. military to respect the Constitution and defy “unlawful orders.”

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The 90-second video was first posted early Tuesday from Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s account

“The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution,” Slotkin wrote in X’s post.

On Thursday, Trump retweeted messages from others about the video, amplifying it in his own words. It was another flashpoint in political discourse that has at times been objective in his administration, as well as among some in his MAGA base. Some Democrats accused him of acting like a king and trying to divert attention from other news, including the soon-to-be-released files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

What did the Democrats say in the video?

Through segments of dialogue pieced together from different panelists, legislators introduce themselves and their background. They go on to say that the Trump administration “is pitting our regular military against American citizens.” They call on service members to “reject unlawful orders” and “defend our laws.”

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The lawmakers concluded the video by encouraging service members, “Don’t give up ship,” a War of 1812-era phrase attributed to a dying U.S. Navy captain’s command to his crew.

Although lawmakers did not mention specific circumstances in the video, its release comes as the Trump administration continues its attempts to deploy National Guard troops to US cities for various roles, though some have been withdrawn, and others are being held in court.

Are US forces allowed to disobey orders?

Troops, especially uniformed commanders, have a specific obligation to refuse an unlawful order, if they make that decision.

However, while commanders have military lawyers on their staff to consult with to help make such a decision, rank-and-file soldiers charged with carrying out those orders are rarely in a similar position.

Broad legal precedence holds that merely following orders, known colloquially as the “Nuremberg Defense” and as used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler, does not exonerate troops.

However, US military legal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice or UCMJ, will punish troops for not following orders if they are found to be lawful. Troops can be criminally charged under Section 90 of the UCMJ, willfully disobeying a superior officer, and Section 92, disobeying an order.

How Trump and others responded

On Thursday, Trump reposted a post on social media about the video, adding his own comment that it was “really bad, and dangerous for our country.”

“Incendiary behavior of traitors!!!” Trump moved on. “Lock them up???” He also called for the lawmakers to be arrested and prosecuted, adding in a separate post that it was “seditious behavior, punishable by death.”

Steady State, which describes itself as “a network of more than 300 national and homeland security experts who advocate for strong, principled politics, the rule of law, and democracy,” wrote in a Substack post Thursday that lawmakers’ call was “merely a restatement of what every officer and service member already knows: unlawful orders can and should be rejected. This is not a political opinion. It is a doctrine.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell challenged the theory that illegal orders were issued.

“Our military follows orders, and our civilians issue lawful orders,” Parnell told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We love the Constitution. These politicians are out of their minds.”

Associated Press writer Konstantin Torobin contributed to this report.