Trump floats death penalty suggestion for 'seditious' Democrats

US President Donald Trump suggested on Nov 20 that Democratic lawmakers who urged the military to refuse illegal orders could be executed, calling them traitors and accusing them of “seditious behaviour”.

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Democrats immediately slammed Mr Trump’s threats against the six senators and representatives, who made the comments in a video posted on X on Nov 18.

“This is really bad, and dangerous to our country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. Seditious behaviour from traitors!!! Lock them up???” Mr Trump said on Truth Social.

He then added in a later post: “Seditious behaviour, punishable by death!”

The 79-year-old 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 backgrounds in the military or intelligence services, and included Senator Mark Kelly, a former member of the navy and NASA astronaut, and Senator Elissa Slotkin, who served with the Central Intelligence Agency in Iraq.

“You can refuse illegal orders,” they said in the video, accusing Mr Trump of “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens”.