Vice President JD Vance criticized Democrats after several lawmakers released a video urging U.S. service members to "defy illegal orders" – a message that President Donald Trump and conservatives argue may amount to calls for "sedition," "insurrection," or potentially deadly mutiny, if not a presidential coup.
"If the president hasn't issued illegal orders, then members of Congress telling the military to defy the president is by definition illegal," Vance wrote in a post on X, sharing an RNC Research post with remarks made by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., to ABC News' "This Week."
Pressed on whether Trump had issued any unlawful orders to the military, Slotkin acknowledged she knew of no such order.
"To my knowledge I am not aware of things that are illegal," she said — prompting Vance's response on X.
Trump and others, now including Vance, have suggested the administration should investigate whether the lawmakers' statements constitute unlawful calls to mutiny.
The Republican National Committee also seized on the exchange, writing on X that Slotkin had admitted Democrats "lied" about the president directing illegal military actions.
Slotkin was one of several Democrat lawmakers — many with intelligence or military backgrounds — who appeared in a recent video reminding service members that they are required under the Uniform Code of Military Justice to refuse "manifestly illegal" commands.
The message was released amid heightened partisan tensions over civilian control of the military and fears that political pressure could influence the chain of command.
"The traitors that told the military to disobey my orders should be in jail right now, not roaming the fake news networks trying to explain that what they said was OK," Trump said in the first of two Saturday night posts.
He added, "It wasn't, and never will be! It was sedition at the highest level, and sedition is a major crime. There can be no other interpretation of what they said!"
In a second post, Trump added, "Many great legal scholars agree that the democrat traitors that told the military to disobey my orders, as president, have committed a crime of serious proportion!"
Newsmax writer Mark Swanson contributed to this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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