Every American must “condemn the President’s calls for our murder and political violence,” the lawmakers responded.
In multiple Truth Social posts on Thursday, President Donald Trump suggested that Democratic lawmakers should be charged and tried for sedition — and potentially put to death — for reminding members of the armed forces of their legal rights and duties.
Six Democratic lawmakers in Congress, all former members of the military or national security officers, issued a joint video statement on social media this week, informing service members that they do not have to follow orders from the president or their superiors if they believe the orders to be illegal.
The message is especially poignant right now. Trump has frequently teased the idea of deploying U.S. military personnel to Democratic-run cities across the country, ostensibly to quell crime and to aid in his administration’s violent raids on immigrant communities.
Trump has warned that he may send troops to those cities under the auspices of the Insurrection Act, claiming he’s “allowed to do whatever I want” and wrongly saying the “courts wouldn’t get involved.” The law stipulates that presidents can use the military domestically in “cases of insurrection or obstruction to the laws.”
There is no evidence of an insurrection taking place anywhere in the U.S., bringing into question whether such a move would fit within the confines of the law.
The message from Democratic lawmakers to troops also comes as Trump has conducted illegal strikes on boats off the coast of South America — attacks that human rights experts have denounced as “crimes against humanity.
