President Trump says he wants to see a handful of Democrats in Congress be put on trial for sedition in order to make an “example” of them after those lawmakers urged members of the military and the intelligence community to not follow illegal orders. The president went so far as to spend hours re-posting messages from random accounts on Truth Social calling for the lawmakers to be punished. 

Mr. Trump’s rage stemmed from a video posted on Tuesday by half-a-dozen Democrats in Congress, all of whom either served in the military or in the intelligence community. Their message was: “Don’t give up the ship.”

“We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,” Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA officer and assistant secretary of defense, says direct-to-camera. “You can refuse illegal orders.”

The message was repeated by Senator Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran,” who said the “administration is pitting our uniformed military” against American citizens. The lawmakers in the video do not mention exactly what they are referencing, though they are likely referring to potential domestic military actions or the invocation of the Insurrection Act, which the president has been considering for months. 

Congressman Chris Deluzio, another Navy veteran, accuses the president of being a threat to the country, without using his name. “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad,” Mr. Deluzio says in the video. 

According to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice — the legal code governing the military — servicemembers are not only justified in refusing to follow orders that are contrary to the statutes or Constitution of the United States, but they are required to do so. The punishments for refusing to follow a lawful order and for agreeing to knowingly follow an illegal order can be the same, according to the UCMJ. 

After the Democrats’ message went viral, Mr. Trump apparently caught wind of it on Thursday morning. In a flurry of Truth Social posts, Mr. Trump said the Democrats in the message may be guilty of sedition, which he says should be punished by death. 

“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL,” the president proclaimed on Thursday morning. “Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET.”

“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???” the president continued. 

In a third post, Mr. Trump simply wrote: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

In a statement on Thursday afternoon, the Democratic lawmakers behind the video stood by their words. “We are veterans and national security professionals who love this country and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” the Democrats wrote in their joint message. “No threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation.”

“What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law,” they added. 

Not only did Mr. Trump send out his own flurry of messages attacking those lawmakers who put out their video, the president re-posted several messages on Truth Social calling them traitors and insurrectionists. In one case, Mr. Trump shared a user’s post saying that the members of Congress should be hanged. 

“Get these people out of office!!” one user wrote. “Indict all of them,” said another. 

A third message shared by Mr. Trump urged them to be hanged because “GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD” do so. 

“It’s called a seditious conspiracy and every one of them should be frog marched out of their homes at 3:00 AM with FOX News cameras filming the whole thing,” another user wrote in a post shared by Mr. Trump.