Trump Threatens Death Penalty for Democrats Urging Military to Refuse Illegal Orders

US President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested capital punishment for Democratic lawmakers who encouraged military personnel to refuse illegal orders, labeling them as traitors and accusing them of sedition.

The Democratic senators and representatives, all with military or intelligence backgrounds, made these statements in a video shared Tuesday on X.

While they did not explicitly identify which orders they were referencing, Trump's administration has faced criticism for its deployment of US forces domestically and internationally.

"This is really bad and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

In a subsequent post, he escalated his rhetoric: "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"

Trump additionally shared a post from a supporter suggesting to "hang them" and claiming that George Washington, the first US president, would have taken similar action.

The lawmakers behind the message included Senator Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran and former NASA astronaut, and Senator Elissa Slotkin, who served with the CIA in Iraq.

The six legislators 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 stated, adding: "You can refuse illegal orders."

Within the United States, Trump has deployed the National Guard to multiple cities, often against local officials' wishes, claiming to address alleged widespread unrest.

Internationally, Trump has ordered strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in over 80 fatalities since early September.

Experts contend these strikes are illegal and constitute extrajudicial killings, even when targeting known traffickers.

A group of more than 300 former national security officials calling themselves the "Steady State" published an open letter Thursday expressing strong support for the six Democrats.

They emphasized that 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."

Both the White House and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth condemned the Democratic lawmakers' message on Wednesday.

Hegseth described it as "Stage 4 TDS," or "Trump Derangement Syndrome" — a term the right uses to mock the president's critics.

Trump previously mentioned the death penalty in 2023 regarding his former top US military officer, Mark Milley, who became an outspoken critic of the president.

After Milley told journalist Bob Woodward about secretly contacting his Chinese counterpart during tensions following the January 2021 Capitol events, Trump remarked, "in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!"