Democrat Elissa Slotkin gets asked point-blank: ‘Do you believe President Trump has issued any illegal orders?’
With controversy raging over Democrats urging the U.S. military and intelligence community to refuse to obey “illegal orders” from President Trump, the Democrat senator who is leading the charge that Trump calls “sedition at the highest level” “punishable by death” was asked point-blank Sunday if any illegal orders have been issued by the commander in chief.
On ABC’s “This Week” broadcast, anchor Martha Raddatz asked U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who is a former CIA officer: “Do you believe President Trump has issued any illegal orders?”
“To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal,” Slotkin responded, “but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela.”
Raddatz: Has Trump issued any illegal orders?
Slotkin: No https://t.co/dUL1D6oVJ4 pic.twitter.com/AAtqK9vA8J
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) November 23, 2025
As WorldNetDaily reported, Trump took to Truth Social late Saturday night to blast Slotkin and her Democrat colleagues suggesting the chain of command be broken.
“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. IT WASN’T, AND NEVER WILL BE!” Trump exclaimed.
“IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID!”
Slotkin told ABC: “He’s trying to get us to shut up because he doesn’t want to be talking about this,” Slotkin said. “In fact, I would argue that one of the things that he’s been doing by repeating it and talking about it is trying to distract us from the big stories of last week, which were the [Jeffrey] Epstein files and then the economy.”
Sen. Slotkin says her “primary concern” is military use within the United States: “It makes me incredibly nervous that we’re about to see people in law enforcement … get nervous, get stressed, shoot at American civilians.” https://t.co/MFiqhccKmQ pic.twitter.com/5UVWurZgi5
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 23, 2025
Slotkin said: “My primary concern is the use of U.S. military on American shores … in our cities and in our streets. We’ve seen now the courts overturn the deployment of U.S. military into our streets, including here in Washington, D.C.
“When you look at these videos coming out of places like Chicago, it makes me incredibly nervous that we’re about to see people in law enforcement, people in uniformed military, get nervous, get stressed, shoot at American civilians. It is very – a very, very stressful situation for these law enforcement and for the communities on the ground. So it was basically a warning to say, like, if you’re asked to do something, particularly against American citizens, you have the ability to go to your JAG officer and push back.”
Raddatz asked the senator: “And with these service members calling you, couldn’t you have done a video saying just what you just said? If you are asked to do something, if you are worried about whether it is legal or not, you can do this. It does imply that the president is having illegal orders which you have not seen.”
Slotkin replied: “I think for us, it was just a statement widely, right? We say very quickly and very – to all the folks who come to us – this is the process: Go to your JAG officer, ask them for explanation, for top cover, for their view on things. We do that on a case by case basis, but we wanted to speak directly to the volumes of people who had come to us on this.
BREAKING: Elected Democrats just released a video encouraging members of the military to commit treason and DEFY orders from Trump and Hegseth pic.twitter.com/Sm4calnccR
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 18, 2025
Regarding the potential for further U.S. military action targeting Venezuela. Slotkin said: “Certainly, the sheer size of the military buildup in and around Venezuela – I mean, you have to assume that when superpowers put that much force into an area that they’re going to use it. They brought in aircraft carriers. They brought in F-35s.”
“Certainly if we’re going to actually think about prosecuting some sort of war or military action against the mainland of Venezuela, I would hope that the president would want to have that conversation publicly, bring in the American people who are not looking to get into another war, who are not looking to get into regime change.”
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