U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during the White House Faith Office Luncheon at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) governs the conduct of every person in the United States military, and applies equally to all ranks and branches, whether in combat, or not.
All service members are taught, and are expected to understand, its core principles. Ignorantia juris non excusat, or “Ignorance of the law,” is not a legal defense in the US military. Under Art. 92 of the UCMJ, members have a duty to obey all lawful commands, and they have a parallel duty to disobey all unlawful commands. Obeying a manifestly illegal order, like an order to target civilians, can expose a service member to criminal liability.
The duty to disobey manifestly illegal orders is a cornerstone of international law, with foundations in Nazi atrocities-related post-WWII trials like Nuremberg. Orders of such nature that their unlawfulness is clear and obvious, such as an order to target unarmed civilians, are considered manifestly illegal.
Manifestly illegal orders
Donald Trump has ordered the summary execution of at least 83 people so far in strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth call these targets “narco-terrorists” because they think that means they can treat them as enemy combatants in a war that does not exist.
It doesn’t. Even if the victims were “narco-terrorists,” for which Trump has provided zero evidence, at worst, they are citizen criminals entitled to interdiction and legal process under US and international law.
No country has the right to execute non-combatant civilians unless faced with imminent threat, otherwise unhinged leaders could shoot people for sport, which Trump’s snuff videos are chillingly starting to resemble.
International condemnation of Trump’s campaign is growing, along with a global chorus accusing him of murderthat would be louder if Trump weren’t threatening foreign trade like a mob boss.Formerly strong US allies, including the UK, Colombia, and the Netherlands, have either refused or suspended related intelligence sharingwith the US. Military support groups are starting to talk in earnest, offering counseling and advice on what to do when faced with illegal order situations.
Calls to execute US lawmakers
Against this legal framework, the President of the United States has called for the prosecution, conviction, and death penalty for federal legislators, for reminding military personnel that they must follow the UCMJ. After Democratic legislators, all veterans of Intelligence or the US military, released a video reminding members of their duty to disobey illegal orders, Trump came unglued, unleashing a series of posts confirming that he is a danger to all Americans and unfit to lead the military.
Trump wrote:
"It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand - We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET."
"SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" he added in a later post.
Eliciting stochastic violence, Trump then reposted other posts calling the lawmakers "traitors" and "domestic terrorist Democrats" and another reading, "HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!"
Trump is criminally insane. What are officials waiting for to remove him?
The evidence that Trump is unfit to lead, and is a metastasizing threat to the US citizenry, is objectively irrefutable:
- He is using the US military for domestic law enforcement, which has long been illegal under federal law
- He has openly turned the Department of Justice into a lawless political weapon
- He is sending armed, masked and insufficiently trained federal agents to attack people in their beds, at schools and churches, and on the sidewalks
- His closest advisors publicly encourage excessive brutality as his “War” Secretary praises “lethality” unconstrained by the laws of combat
- Advancing his violence toward the media, last week he defended the dismemberment of a journalist critic
- He has officially declared groups who oppose him politically to be “domestic terrorists” in clear violation of the First Amendment
- His administration has been caught lying about peaceful protestors threatening ICE agents in order to justify ICE brutality.
At the same time Trump is violating the rule of law at home, transforming the nation into an occupied military zone, his national security blunders have seriously increased the risk of harm from outside forces by:
- Sharing a plan of attack through unsecured sources
- Posting juvenile social media rants that gave Iran advance notice to move their enriched uranium
- Accidentally declaring part of Mexicoas US territory now under US command
- Alienating NATO, demoralizing Ukraine, and supporting Putin’s murderous regime in Russia
- Claiming victory in Gaza even as both sides continues attacking on the other
- Selling fighter jets to Saudi Arabia despite national security warnings.
These cumulative blunders suggest he doesn’t care about long-term, or even short-term, risks to national security. For example, Trump’s plans to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia ignores consistent warnings from national security officials that he will be letting China steal the American military’s advanced technology. Trump either doesn’t care, or lacks the cognitive capacity to understand, that Riyadh and Beijing have a formal security partnership.
“We will be doing that, we’ll be selling F-35s,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, because the Saudis “want to buy them, they’ve been a great ally.”
These facts trigger a duty to act, regardless of politics.
Federal officials, including his cabinet, and members of Congress, all swore an oath to follow the Constitution and protect the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Legal tools within their reach includeimpeachment and removal,Congressional oversight and the power of the purse, and the 25th Amendment.
This is not a partisan issue. America is in danger. Federal officials’ complicity and failure to act is now a dereliction of duty in deference to a man whose cognition is in question, who still has access to the nuclear codes.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.