Donald Trump is being accused of walking straight into a trap set by his Democratic opponents, after he erupted over a video of lawmakers telling U.S. troops to refuse illegal orders, and then unleashed the Pentagon on one of them.
The clash began when six Dems in Congress urged service members to “refuse illegal orders” and “stand up for our laws.” Trump responded exactly as those lawmakers probably hoped. In a furious online post, he branded them “traitors” and accused them of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL,” declaring that what they had done was “punishable by DEATH!” and calling for their arrest and trial for treason. He also reposted an extremism soaked message that read, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!”
That was not the end of it, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon then announced a review of Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, the only retired military officer in the group, and threatened to recall him to active duty and court martial him for allegedly undermining discipline. Kelly, a former Navy captain and astronaut, has pushed back, calling the video’s message “non controversial” and saying that telling troops to disobey unlawful orders is exactly what they are trained to do.
For former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, Trump’s blow up is not a show of strength, it is proof that Democrats successfully lured him off the ground he needs to be fighting on.
“I think it’s important to remember, too, that Donald Trump’s abuse, inappropriate use of the military, is unpopular,” Bedingfield told CNN. “If people are asked whether they think his use of the National Guard was appropriate, even those who say that they like what he’s done to close down the border, will still say that it’s an inappropriate use of the military.”
Her argument is simple, voters care first about their wallets, and Trump should be talking about inflation and jobs. Instead, he is raging about death penalties for lawmakers and greenlighting a Pentagon move against a combat veteran senator, a spectacle that reminds people of his ugliest instincts.
“So in many ways it strikes me that Donald Trump has given them exactly the response that they were looking for,” Bedingfield said. “His response is outrageous, it’s over the top, it’s continuing to drive the sense that he is, in fact, using the military inappropriately. And, it is preventing him from talking about the economy, which is what he needs to be doing. So in that way, I think he’s taken their bait.”
Legal experts have noted that the Democrats’ message is not radical doctrine cooked up to taunt Trump, it sits squarely inside long standing military law. Troops are required to obey lawful orders, but they are also trained that they must refuse clearly illegal ones, a principle rooted in the post World War II Nuremberg legacy and repeatedly affirmed in military codes.
Trump’s allies insist the video is a call for mutiny, pointing out that it arrived as he pushes more aggressive uses of troops on the border and at sea. Conservative commentators and accounts have blasted the lawmakers for allegedly “encouraging members of the military to commit treason and defy orders from Trump and Hegseth.”
But Bedingfield and other critics say that by turning a one minute clip into a multi day meltdown, Trump handed his opponents a gift. Instead of defending his economic record, he is on television railing about hanging lawmakers and backing an investigation into a decorated veteran, all while polls already show public unease about politicizing the armed forces.
If Democrats were looking for a way to highlight those fears, they could hardly have scripted a better reaction. And if Bedingfield is right, Trump did not just step into their military ambush, he marched right into it, shouting at full volume the whole way.
