Despite protests over the earlier attacks, President Trump has doubled down, calling for the jailing of rivals who sent messages to the military.
US President Donald Trump has stepped up his criticism of Democratic lawmakers, calling them “traitors” for calling on military personnel to defy illegal orders.
President Trump suggested late Saturday that Democratic lawmakers who released video messages to military personnel earlier this week should be jailed.
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“The traitors who directed the military to disobey my orders should be in jail now, not roaming fake news networks trying to explain that what they said was okay,” he said in a social media post.
“That never happened, and never will! It’s mayhem at the highest level, and mayhem is a serious crime. There can be no other interpretation of what they said!”
The latest post came after President Trump sparked an uproar on Thursday when he appeared to call for the death penalty against Democrats in a video.
“Sedition is punishable by death!” Trump wrote.
The 90-second video was first posted Tuesday by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA employee. Several Democratic congressmen who served in the military or intelligence agencies were featured.
In the video, the lawmakers said the Trump administration was “pitting our uniformed military against the American people” and called on service members to “stand up for our laws.”
“Our laws are clear: we can refuse illegal orders,” they say.
Democratic lawmakers did not specify what illegal orders military personnel should refuse. But their message was consistent with President Trump’s efforts to deploy federal troops to several Democratic-led U.S. cities.
President Trump’s invocation of the death penalty drew condemnation from Democrats, with critics accusing him of calling for the killing of members of Congress.
Chrissy Hoolahan, one of the Democratic congresswomen who appeared in the video, told CNN on Thursday: “There’s no other explanation than to say the president put our lives at risk.”
“He directly and literally said that we are instigators and traitors and that we should literally be hanged. So there is no other way to interpret this than to ask us to die.”
The controversy comes as the United States continues to be rocked by political violence following the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk in September and the murder of Democratic Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman in June.
Despite the outcry over his previous comments on the death penalty, President Trump appeared unfazed by the criticism.
“Many great legal scholars agree that the Democratic traitors who directed the military to disobey my orders as president committed a grave crime,” he wrote on Saturday.
The president is the supreme commander of the U.S. military, and the law requires officers to follow orders from their superiors.
However, some legal scholars stress that service members are sworn to the Constitution and that the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which applies to all active duty officers, only details penalties for members who do not comply with “legal orders.”
Furthermore, the laws of war provide no legal protection to soldiers who follow illegal orders.
The International Committee of the Red Cross’ international humanitarian law database states that orders that are “manifestly illegal” “must be complied with.”
