Staff Reports
President Trump exploded on Truth Social after six Democratic veterans in Congress released a video urging service members and intelligence officers to refuse unlawful orders, calling their actions “seditious behavior” and saying they should be arrested and punished — even using the phrase “punishable by DEATH” in his posts. Conservatives should be blunt: when elected officials urge our troops to disobey lawful orders, it’s not civil courage — it’s a direct attack on the chain of command and national security.
The video, titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” featured Senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly and Representatives Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander, and Chris Deluzio — all of whom have military or intelligence backgrounds — telling service members they “must refuse illegal orders.” Their supposedly principled message, delivered in a dramatic montage, offered no specific unlawful orders to justify this extraordinary exhortation and instead stoked fear and confusion among the troops.
Make no mistake: this isn’t abstract debate. The video came amid ongoing U.S. strikes against suspected narcotics-smuggling vessels and other sensitive operations, the kind of missions that demand discipline, clarity, and unity of command. Encouraging rank-and-file personnel to second-guess or defy commanders in the middle of such operations is reckless and could cost lives or national objectives.
There must be accountability when lawmakers step over the line from oversight into what looks like incitement of disobedience. The Justice Department and other officials are already parsing whether the lawmakers’ statements crossed legal lines, and conservatives should stop pretending that rules and consequences don’t apply when political theater endangers institutions. If you want military policy changed, use the ballot box and the legislative process — don’t solicit mutiny.
At the same time, Republicans should not mimic Democrats’ melodrama; concerns about incendiary rhetoric are real, and the White House quickly said President Trump did not want members of Congress executed. But the core point remains: calling out behavior that undermines the military is the right instinct, and it’s the Democrats who opened this fire by producing a panic-inducing video with veteran credentials. The difference between legitimate critique and encouraging insubordination matters.
Patriots should also recognize the hypocrisy here. These same Democrats often lecture about “respecting the military” while encouraging the exact opposite in practice. Conservatives must rally behind a single principle: obedience to lawful orders, fierce accountability for unlawful ones, and zero tolerance for public officials who try to make a spectacle of undermining our armed forces.
This moment is a test of who will defend order and the rule of law. Republican leaders like Speaker Mike Johnson have supported the president’s characterization of the video as inappropriate, while Democrats are busy shrieking about “incitement.” Voters should remember which party sides with military discipline and which tries to use our troops as props in political theater — and they should act accordingly at the ballot box.
