In November 2025, six lawmakers of the Democratic party created a 90-second video urging military and intelligence service members to resist “illegal orders,” according to PBS. The orders in which they were referring to came during the rising tensions between the Venezuelan government and Trump administration and the opposition by Democrat-led cities to Trump’s deployment of the National Guard troops in those areas, according to the BBC.
On Jan. 14, 2026, Democratic Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, who organized and was first to post on her X account the video in November (PBS), posted a video claiming she is being investigated by federal prosecutors because of the 90-second video.
“To be clear, this is the president’s playbook. Truth doesn’t matter, facts don’t matter and anyone who disagrees with him becomes an enemy. And he then weaponizes the federal government against them,” Slotkin said in response to the investigation. “It’s legal intimidation and physical intimidation meant to get you to shut up.”
President Donald Trump’s response to the video prompted the investigation as he called the video message “treasonous” and amplified a social media post suggesting the six members should be hanged, according to NPR. Charlie Marks ’27, an AP government and politics student, feels that the democrats are practicing their First Amendment rights.
“They [Democratic lawmakers] have the right to say that [what they said in the video] and they have the responsibility as lawmakers in this time where the federal government is, I would say, overreaching its power to speak out,” Marks said. “The federal government obviously has the right to pursue any sort of litigation that it wants to, but I doubt it’s going to go anywhere because she [Slotkin] is using her personal right as a lawmaker.”
According to the Military Law Task Force, ‘all members of the military have the right, and in some cases have the duty, to refuse illegal orders. Your oath is to the Constitution, not to the Commander-In-Chief or to any other individual in the chain of command.’ Government teacher Andrew Taylor notes that Slotkin was just stating the rules in military training and not inflicting harmful speech.
“All she did was say that the law should be followed,” Taylor said. “If it was a general speaking out, you’d be more concerned because they’re in the chain of command, but she’s not, she’s a senator that has the right to speak her mind. You should punish people if their speech causes harm, but you can’t punish them just for their speech.”
As Slotkin is still under federal investigation, she has received close to 1,000 threats, including a bomb threat to her house, according to NPR. On Feb. 2, 2026, after appearing at a Wayne State University conference, Slotkin spoke of the current details of the investigation and how she will proceed, according to Michigan Live.
“I’m not going to kind of go quietly into the night,” Slotkin said on Feb. 2. “If they want to pursue this inquiry, I’m going to pursue pushing right on back.”
