As PJ Media previously reported, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and a group of Democratic lawmakers recently released a video telling military and intelligence personnel to refuse "illegal orders" from President Donald Trump’s administration. They didn’t mention Trump, but the implication was clear.
This sparked a fierce backlash, with Trump accusing them of “sedition at the highest level” and saying their actions are punishable by death. The situation quickly escalated into a heated political firestorm with the pearl-clutching we’ve come to expect daily from Democrats every time Trump says or does something.
But then Slotkin backed off.
On ABC’s This Week, she admitted that she was “not aware” of any illegal orders coming from Trump.
Host Martha Raddatz pressed Slotkin directly, asking if she believed Trump had ever given an unlawful order. Slotkin responded carefully, saying, “To my knowledge, I– I am not aware of things that are illegal, but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela.”
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Raddatz continued to challenge Slotkin. “Let me read you what Sen. Lindsey Graham said about your video. ‘You owe it to the men and women in the military to be specific about what you are talking about. What these senators and House members did was unnerving, and it was unconscionable to suggest that the president of the United States is issuing unlawful orders without giving an example.’”
That’s when Slotkin pivoted by mentioning Trump’s use of the National Guard to enforce immigration law in sanctuary cities, defying federal law, and framed her prior warning as procedural guidance rather than an accusation of illegal activity. “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,” Slotkin said.
Raddatz challenged her again, noting that Slotkin’s video implied the president had issued illegal orders. “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 – 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’s defense really started to fall apart there. “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.”
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She even acknowledged the difficulty of defining an illegal order in practical terms. “It is very clear that no one should follow an illegal order, but it’s very murky when you look at what is an illegal order. And if you go into morally, ethically, that’s a pretty tough thing to look at and say, ‘How do I navigate this?’”
Elissa Slotkin ADMITS Democrats lied about President Trump issuing illegal orders to the military:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 23, 2025
ABC: "Do you believe President Trump has issued any illegal orders?"
SLOTKIN: "To my knowledge I am not aware of things that are illegal." pic.twitter.com/63F8AHkK7E
The problem is that Slotkin’s video explicitly urged service members to defy orders, rather than question them through their chain of command, and Raddatz called her out on live television. Slotkin’s messaging shifted in real time. What started as an accusation against the president has now been reframed entirely because Slotkin and the rest of the Democrats in the video have been called out for their lies.
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