The air in the republic feels thin these days, as if the very oxygen of democracy is being slowly siphoned off, and from his digital pulpit, the president has poured another vial of poison into the atmosphere.
Trump’s latest antic is not merely rhetoric; it is a call for the state-sanctioned murder of American legislators, a line no chief executive, past or present, has ever dared to cross.
The offense that provoked this lethal prescription was a video, a simple and sober recitation of the law.
Six members of Congress, who performed duties to the nation in uniform or as members of the intelligence community, reminded those currently serving that their oath is to the Constitution, not to the whims of a single man.
They stated a foundational principle of our military code: that disobeying an unlawful order is not insubordination, but a duty. For this act of civic instruction, Donald Trump has branded them traitors and suggested their punishment should be death.
Let us be clear, for precision is the first casualty in such times.
The lawmakers—Kelly, Slotkin, DeLuzio, Goodlander, Houlahan, and Crow—did not mutiny. They quoted the manual. They affirmed the rule of law.
The “seditious behavior” he accuses them of is, in fact, the bedrock of a professional military, the very bulwark against the tyranny they correctly warned is threatening us from within.
The president’s subsequent posts, a festival of fury on his Truth Social platform, escalated from his trademark “LOCK THEM UP” to something far darker.
He amplified a supporter’s shriek that George Washington would have hanged them, and then, with the chilling clarity of a judge passing sentence, he wrote the words himself: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, PUNISHABLE BY DEATH.”
One searches the dusty attic of American history for a parallel and finds none.
Presidents have clashed with Congress, have vetoed and vetoed again, have even been impeached. But none has ever publicly fantasized about the execution of elected representatives for the crime of disagreeing with him.
This is not a political strategy; it is the reflex of an autocrat, a guttural sound from a place where law has been extinguished.
The Democratic response, labeling his threats “absolutely vile,” was appropriate but insufficient to the magnitude of the transgression.
The Republican response, where it existed at all, was a masterclass in moral cowardice, a series of mumbled distortions about what the lawmakers actually said, as if the real scandal was a breach of protocol, not a call for lynching elected representatives of the people.
The Defense Secretary, a man entrusted with the world’s most powerful military, dismissed angry reactions as “Stage 4 Trump derangement syndrome,” a glib quip in the face of a fascistic overture.
This is not an isolated incident.
It is the climax of a long campaign to debase the language of statecraft.
Trump is a man who has cried “treason” more often than a boy in a schoolyard play, applying the label to newspaper headlines, to political opponents, to his own FBI.
He once suggested his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, deserved execution. He pardoned those who chanted for the hanging of his own vice president during the insurrection at the Capitol.
The word has been hollowed out, its terrible meaning lost, until all that remains is a blunt instrument for anyone who incurs his wrath.
Now, the instrument is aimed at the heart of the legislature.
The lawmakers have, understandably, increased their security. They now live with the tangible consequence of the president’s words, a fear that some unhinged soul might take his digital gallows as a command.
Our nation must wonder how a man who cavalierly endorses the murder of his countrymen can be afforded any platform, any credibility, any shred of the public trust.
When a reporter asked about Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist murdered in 2018 by operatives sent by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was welcomed to the Oval Office, Trump replied, “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
When a sitting president suggests hanging senators, the event is not merely a news cycle. It is a seismic shock to the constitutional order. It is a test. The question is no longer about his fitness for office, but about our collective commitment to the republic he so openly despises.
The silence of his party and the timid coverage of some press outlets suggest we are failing that test.
The ship of state is listing, and the captain is actively drilling holes in its hull. To refuse an illegal order is the duty of every soldier. To condemn this is the duty of every citizen. To advocate the murder of legislators, or to excuse the slaughter of journalists, is to declare war on the American republic itself.
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