Trump floats death penalty for ‘seditious’ Democrats

WASHINGTON:

US President Donald Trump on Thursday evoked the death penalty for Democratic lawmakers who urged the military to refuse illegal orders, calling them traitors and accusing them of “seditious behavior.”

Democrats immediately slammed the “absolutely vile” threats against the six senators and representatives, who made the comments in a video posted on X on Tuesday. “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???,” Trump said on Truth Social.

He then added in a later post: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Trump also reposted a message from a user urging him to “hang them” and saying that the first US president, George Washington, would have done the same.

The Democratic lawmakers all have service backgrounds and included Senator Mark Kelly, a former member of the Navy and NASA astronaut, and Senator Elissa Slotkin, who served with the CIA in Iraq. “You can refuse illegal orders,” they said in the video, accusing Trump of “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.”

They did not specify which orders they were referring to, but Trump has ordered the National Guard into multiple US cities, in many cases against the wishes of local officials, in a bid to bring allegedly rampant unrest under control.

Abroad, Trump has ordered strikes on a series of alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have left more than 80 people dead and which experts say are illegal.