Trump Calls for Six Democrat Executions

On November 18th, six Democratic lawmakers – five veterans and one former intelligence officer – urged U.S. service members to disobey illegal orders from the Trump Administration. Here’s the full video posted to Senator Elissa Slotkin’s Bluesky feed:

Nothing said in the video is wrong, legally or morally. As the Military Times reported back in August (emphasis added):

U.S. service members take an oath to uphold the Constitution. In addition, under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the U.S. Manual for Courts-Martial, service members must obey lawful orders and disobey unlawful orders. Unlawful orders are those that clearly violate the U.S. Constitution, international human rights standards or the Geneva Conventions. Service members who follow an illegal order can be held liable and court-martialed or subject to prosecution by international tribunals. Following orders from a superior is no defense.

In response to the video, President Trump went on a Truth Social tirade. First, he called for all six Democrats to be jailed. He "retruthed" a deluge of posts, including one from a random account that said "HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!". He then doubled down, saying "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!".

The President of the United States calling for his political opponents' executions should, in any functioning democracy, be cause for impeachment and removal from office. Instead, the fallout is proceeding as usual; Republican leaders in Congress are offering mealy-mouthed excuses for Trump's explicit death threats before immediately criticizing the Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune: "I don’t agree with [Trump's statements]... but obviously everybody has a First Amendment right [but] what [the Democrats] did was ill-advised and provocative and unnecessary.”
House Majority Leader Mike Johnson: "Trump was defining sedition... [but] for a senator like Mark Kelly or any member of the House or Senate to behave in that kind of talks is to me so just beyond the pale."

It's easy for Republicans to dismiss Trump's newest impeachable act when they have the performative memory of a goldfish. It's as if each act lives in a vacuum, divorced from the inconvenience of historical context.

In reality, Trump's call for Democrat executions is a manifestation of his decades-long obsession with capital punishment. He spent $85,000 calling for the Central Park Five kids to get the death penalty and then refused to apologize after they were exonerated decades later. He urged every U.S. governor to sentence drug smugglers to death after heaping praise on dictators that do the same. He's already murdered 83 foreign nationals simply suspected of being drug smugglers. He wants every convicted murderer in Washington D.C. sentenced to death. He wanted former U.S. General Mark Milley to get the death penalty. He wanted his own Vice President, Mike Pence, hanged for not overturning the 2020 election.

The Trump Administration has spent the last year purging dozens of military leaders who dared to question orders or narratives, meaning there are fewer adults in the room that could stop Trump's worst impulses. Democrats should continue urging rank and file service members to uphold their oaths because we don't know if – or when – Trump's violent rhetoric will turn to action.