‘You Know How President Trump Is’: Republicans Say Trump Isn’t Actually Threatening Democrats

President Donald Trump accused a half-dozen congressional Democrats Thursday of “seditious behavior, punishable by death.” In turn, Republicans hemmed, hawed, and suggested the president didn’t really mean what he said.

“I’m sure the president has his tongue in cheek there,” Sen. Josh Hawley said.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville quipped: “You know how President Trump is. He’s going to go to the ultimate.”

And Sen. Rick Scott told NOTUS: “It’s a hypothetical. Trump’s not going to do something illegal. OK, so it’s not going to happen.”

The president’s comments came after six congressional Democrats — Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, alongside Reps. Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan — in a video on Wednesday called on military service members to refuse “illegal orders” from the administration.

“This administration is pitting their uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” the lawmakers, taking turns, said in the video. “Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders. … No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

In response, Trump made consecutive posts on Truth Social calling the lawmakers “traitors.”

“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???,” the president wrote in one post.

In another, he added: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Trump also re-posted a user who said, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD.”

Republicans have spent months decrying politically violent rhetoric in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Many of those same lawmakers have had a more muted response to Trump’s remarks.

A number of Republicans told NOTUS they agree with Trump that Democrats were wrong to say that service members shouldn’t follow illegal orders. Hawley said he’s concerned about “the Democrats urging people not to follow the chain of command.” Tuberville said, “You don’t tell soldiers to not obey orders.”

None seemed eager to overtly defend the president’s comment suggesting the Democrats should face a death sentence, though even the president’s critics stopped short of censuring him.

“I think that’s a little strong,” Sen. Thom Tillis said of Trump’s comment. “That’s just my immediate reaction. I’ll leave it at that.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to address Trump’s comments directly, saying instead that it was “wildly inappropriate” for Democratic members “to encourage young troops to disobey orders.”

“Think of the threat that is to our national security and what that means to our institutions. We have got to raise the bar in Congress. This is out of control, it is wildly inappropriate,” Johnson continued.

The White House defended Trump along similar lines, reiterating that the Democrats’ actions could be punishable under the law.

The lawmakers signaled “to people serving under this commander in chief, Donald Trump, that you can defy him and you can betray your oath of office,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the briefing Thursday. “That is a very, very dangerous message, and it perhaps is punishable by law. I’m not a lawyer. I’ll leave that to the Department of Justice and the Department of War to decide.”

Leavitt said Trump was not calling for the deaths of Democratic lawmakers.

Sen. Susan Collins, a longtime GOP Trump critic, said she hadn’t heard of Trump’s posts yet but “obviously, I don’t agree with that at all.”

Meanwhile, in a joint statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar condemned Trump’s posts, calling them “disgusting and dangerous death threats.”

“We have been in contact with the House Sergeant at Arms and the United States Capitol Police to ensure the safety of these Members and their families. Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed,” House Democratic leadership said.

The U.S. Capitol Police and the Senate and House Sergeants-at-arms did not respond to NOTUS’ requests for comment.

Democratic lawmakers have continuously told NOTUS they fear the rhetoric coming from the administration threatening prosecution could fuel threats of violence against them, particularly amid a rise in political violence against officials from both parties: Two assassination attempts against Trump; Kirk’s assassination; the shooting of Minnesota state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband; Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home being set on fire while and his family slept inside in April.

Several House Democrats have even said they do not believe they can trust the Justice Department will take death threats against them seriously, as NOTUS first reported.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor that “every time Donald Trump posts things like this, he makes political violence more likely.”

“He’s made political violence a feature of his politics, and if we don’t draw a line here, there’s no line left to draw,” Schumer said. “He must be condemned forcefully, loudly and without excuses before someone takes his words as permission to do the unthinkable.”

He later added that he had spoken with Capitol Police to give Slotkin and Kelly “all the help and support they need.”

The six lawmakers involved in the video said in a joint statement they were not intimidated by the president: “No threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation.”

“What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law. Our servicemembers should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders,” the lawmakers said.

At least two Republicans NOTUS spoke with conceded that the president’s words carry outsized weight.

When NOTUS asked Tillis whether the president needs to be careful about his rhetoric given the state of political violence in America, he replied: “On the one hand, the president is just a man, or a woman in the future. On the other hand, their words carry a lot of weight.”

Rep. Don Bacon, a veteran himself, told NOTUS in a text that the video Democrats made “was not wise. All the military members know” they can refuse illegal orders.

“The President suggesting the congressmen be hanged,” Bacon then added, “is even less wise.”