Live updates: White House blames Democrats for Trump’s threats to execute political opponents

He later posted a message in which he repeated his all-caps accusation of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” from the lawmakers before claiming that such “behavior” is “punishable by DEATH,” along with a repost of another Truth Social user who encouraged him to “HANG THEM.”

Earlier Thursday, Trump accused Slotkin and other Democratic lawmakers who called for the military to disobey illegal orders of “seditious behavior,” which he said was “punishable by death.”

Trump posted on Truth Social describing their behavior as seditious and insinuated they deserve the death penalty.

But Johnson said that Trump simply defined what crime they committed.

“What I read was he was defining the crime of sedition,” he told The Independent. “But obviously attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that. What I’m saying, what I will say unequivocally, that was a wildly inappropriate thing for so called leaders in Congress to do to encourage young troops to disobey orders.”

Donald Trump allegedly called Jeffrey Epstein moments after his 2016 election victory over Hillary Clinton, contrary to his later claims he had not spoken to the pedophile financier in many years.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke about Trump’s upcoming meeting with Zohran Mamdani, the incoming mayor of New York City.

During a press briefing on Thursday, a reporter questioned whether there is anything the Democratic socialist can do to “ease” concerns from Trump.

“I won’t get into the president’s thinking,” Leavitt said. “You’ll all hear from him directly.”

She added, “It speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House because that’s who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country.”

“The president is very frank and honest with everyone in this room,” she said during a Thursday press briefing when asked about the incident. “He calls out fake news when he sees it. He gets frustrated with reporters…but he also is the most transparent president in history.”

“Does the president want to execute members of Congress?” the reporter asked during a Thursday press briefing.

“No,” Leavitt responded.

She went on to attack the group of six Democratic lawmakers for posting a video urging service members to disobey illegal orders.

“They are literally saying to 1.3 million active duty service members to defy the chain of command,” Leavitt said, adding it “could inspire chaos and it could incite violence.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lauded Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education as “common sense.”

“American families do not need the Department of Education,” she said during a Thursday briefing. “It’s clear that throwing more money at a broken system does not work.”

Her remarks come two days after the administration unveiled a plan to pare down the Department of Education’s responsibilities by transferring its programs to other agencies.

Six Democratic lawmakers criticized the president for accusing them of sedition and implying they deserved the death penalty.

“We are veterans and national security professionals who love this country and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and four representatives said in a joint statement released Thursday afternoon. “No threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation.”

“What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law,” they added.

In Truth Social posts this morning, Trump labeled the lawmakers guilty of sedition for posting a video urging service members to ignore illegal orders.

“Punishable by DEATH!” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the president’s recent Truth Social posts about Democratic lawmakers “deadly serious.”

“The president of the United States is calling for the execution of elected officials,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Thursday. “This is an outright threat and it’s deadly serious…When Donald Trump uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen.”