Republicans dumbfounded by Trump’s calls for harsh retribution against Democratic lawmakers

President Trump’s heated rhetorical attacks on Democratic lawmakers, whom he called out as “traitors” who deserve to be jailed, have left his Republican allies in Washington dumbfounded and skeptical about any bipartisan dealmaking at the end of 2025.

Republican lawmakers and strategists fear Trump is undermining his own credibility and ability to get anything done before the midterm election.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that Trump labeling his political opponents as traitors was “reckless” and “irresponsible.”

“If you take it at face value, the idea that calling your opponents ‘traitors’ — and then specifically saying that it warrants the death penalty — is reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible,” Paul told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Other GOP lawmakers were quick to distance themselves from the president.

Initially, they could hardly believe Trump had threatened to toss prominent members of the Democratic Party in jail — a jarring comment even from a president known to post on social media without a filter.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) furrowed her brow incredulously when a reporter last week described to her Trump’s comments on Truth Social, in which he accused Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and a group of House Democrats of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

“Obviously, I don’t agree with that,” Collins said before darting into the Senate chamber.

Slotkin, a former CIA intelligence analyst, said on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump’s attacks have affected her “security situation.”

“The security situation changed for all of us,” she said when asked about the fallout from Trump’s attacks. 

Slotkin told ABC she has seen a “huge spike in death threats and intimidation” on her phones, email and websites since Trump lashed out against her.

Yet Trump doubled down on his incendiary comments late Saturday.

“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!” he posted on Truth Social.

Two weeks after the conclusion of the longest government shutdown in American history, Trump and Democratic lawmakers are tearing at each other again, dimming the prospects of reaching a deal on expiring health insurance premium subsidies or legislation to fund the government past Jan. 30.

“I think it’s problematic all the way around, I have thought that since the last shutdown ended,” said Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former member of the House, on the sour vibe in Washington, which the Democrats’ video and Trump’s reaction have intensified.

“They’re going to come back from the [Thanksgiving] holiday all wrapped up in this issue and still relitigating the release of the [Epstein] files and all sorts of stuff that is not going to get them closer to keeping the government funded in the new year,” he added.

A group of centrist Senate Democrats are hoping to negotiate a bipartisan deal with GOP colleagues by Christmas to extend the expiring health insurance premium subsidies beyond December. Striking a deal in the next few weeks now appears to be an unreachable goal.

Lawmakers also have to reach a long-term funding deal for the Defense Department and the departments of Health and Human Services; Education; Labor; Commerce; Justice; and State, along with other areas of the federal government, by Jan. 30.

All those objectives are being cast under new doubt given the rancorous tone in Washington.

Former Republican Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) accused Democrats of acting irresponsibly by calling on members of the military to defy unlawful orders without saying which orders should be considered unlawful.

Gregg said the invitation to defy the president was deliberately provocative but added that Trump’s response was “beyond irresponsible”

He called the video featuring Kelly, Slotkin and Democratic Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.) and Maggie Goodlander (N.H.), who all have national security expertise, “inappropriate” and “irresponsible.”

“Who defines an illegal order? Are they going to go to court?” he asked. “Does a captain not agree with his colonel, does the colonel not agree with his general, does the general not agree with the elected official? Our democracy depends on the military in response to our elected government.

“Their statements were irresponsible,” Gregg said of the Democrats.

But Gregg said Trump went too far in his response.

“The president’s statements — he always has to one-up everybody — basically his statements were beyond irresponsible,” he said. “You can’t accuse members of Congress of treason. You can’t suggest somebody be executed in a democracy.”

“A lot of people have incorrect positions. So you’re going to go out and call everybody with an incorrect position a traitor? It borders on the theater of the absurd at a level we haven’t seen before,” he added.

Privately, some Republicans in Washington said they think that Trump played into his Democratic antagonists’ hands by erupting with so much anger in response to what GOP insiders viewed as an attempt to goad the president.  

“It’s brilliant tactics by them,” a senior Republican strategist said of the Democratic video.

The source called Trump’s response “crass” but argued the Democratic lawmakers were also in the wrong by urging members of the military to defy Trump’s orders without providing any specificity about which orders should be considered illegal.

“They put out that video … telling the military to disobey orders from the president. They’re basically calling for a military insurrection, and then when they get questioned about it, they say, ‘We don’t know of any unlawful orders we’re telling them to ignore.’ They were playing with fire themselves,” the GOP strategist said of the Democrats.

The Republican insider said Trump has come away from the episode looking unpresidential, something Democrats could use as political ammunition in next year’s midterm election.

“Is it appropriate for the president of the United States to say that senators are treasonous? No. But is it understandable how the language got there? Yeah,” the strategist said.

Ross K. Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, said Trump is prone to overreacting when confronted by political opponents.

“It could have been dealt with simply by saying that this was an unfortunate statement or their language was inappropriate, but he’s got to raise things to the maximum level, to DEFCON 1,” Baker said, referring to the Pentagon’s code name for signaling that nuclear war is imminent.

“It kind of diminishes the value of things he says that are important,” he said. “If you’re constantly making these outrageous, over-the-top threats, it becomes part of a pattern and people tend to ignore it.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) last week called the Democrats’ video urging members of the military and national security professionals to resist Trump’s order’s “clearly provocative.”

“But I certainly don’t agree with the president’s conclusion on how we ought to handle it,” he added.  

The big question Republicans may face when they return to Capitol Hill after Thanksgiving is whether they would support potential criminal investigations of the six lawmakers who urged members of the military to defy Trump.

The Department of Defense announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut, over what it called “serious allegations of misconduct.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday accused Democrats of urging soldiers to “ignore the orders of their commanders.”