Trump Amplifies Calls to Jail Top Elected Officials, Invokes Military Tribunals

A post that Mr. Trump circulated on Sunday called for Liz Cheney to be prosecuted by a military court reserved for enemy combatants and war criminals.

Included in the list of people to be brought up for war crimes against the United States were Current President Joe Biden, Current VP Kamala Harris, former VP Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger and Representatives Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, Pete Aguilar, Zoe Lofgren and Bennie Thompson.

Cosmicomical,

Wow does he realize that by doing this he’s basically making it self defence for Biden to anticipate him?

exanime,

Maybe if he woke up enough to realize what’s going on around him?

Corvidae,

Liz Cheney is not an enemy combatant. If this is Trump’s definition of one, that as an authoritarian any dissent to his will is considered treason, then he’ll still need to change the rules of military tribunals to allow prosecution of non-combatant civilians. In case anyone hasn’t read it, Wikipedia has a page on Military tribunals in the United States - Wikipedia

It’s curious Trump seems to believe that mere political dissent equates to enemy combat and physical violence. Imagine what he must think about Jan 6 that he has been keeping to himself. Can anyone say “project”?

He’s saying he must be given a military tribunal as an enemy combatant?

BigMacHole,

That’s OK because it’s an OFFICIAL Act of the Presidency!

fine_sandy_bottom,

Surely, surely, a significant portion of conservative voters can see that this isn’t what democracy should look like, even if they’re ardent republican supporters.

Nightwingdragon,

Whether or not it’s “what democracy should look like” is an opinion often based on whether you’re on (or think you’re on) the giving or receiving end of the oppression.

fine_sandy_bottom,

I get that, but I suppose I’m trying to say that there’s a point at which even if you’re not on the receiving end of the oppression you have to recognise that something’s not right.

fukurthumz420,

republican allegiance is to the bible, not the constitution. they say a lot of things about the constitution, but in the end, they just want christo-fascism. some of them are true believers in the make believe, others just use to justify their own cruelty.

either way, their motives don’t matter. it’s all about what we’re going to do about it.

hypnoton,

When your neighbor waves a loaded gun in your face, do you whine about how no neighbors should be behaving like that? Is that effective? That’s basically begging for morality.

Stop preaching morality to your foes. The servatives are too far gone. The billionaires are too far gone.

No more hopium and copium.

We need to wake up to what IS, as opposed to what we wish it were.

If morality could solve any socioeconomic imbalance, billionaires would ban and outlaw morality.

The fact that morality is always promoted and no one went to prison or was assassinated for promoting morality means one of two things: either a) morality doesn’t exist and can’t work even in principle, and instead we have a bullshit narrative to make people more timid and more self-doubting to make from them more manageable subjects, or b) real actual morality does exist, and when taught WOULD threaten the billionaires and other exploiters, and thus WOULD effectively produce societies centered on broad wellbeing, but we were never exposed to it in religion or in any university level class.

If it’s b) then such morality isn’t based on begging and pleading with the unwilling and uninterested parties. And also if it’s b) then preaching such morality would be viewed as a threat to today’s trash status quo and a threat to the morbidly wealthy billionaires.

Deello,

This country went from undecided on the death penalty to openly embracing presidential hit squads seemingly over night. The right is saying who is on their list while the left is saying they should make one. Good times ahead.

nondescripthandle,

Would be a reaaaal shame if someone interpreted this as a threat to the rule of law that necessitated some kind of presidential act. There’s gotta be plenty of realistic ways to fuck with him in an official capacity.

grue,

Not doing it would be literally suicidal on Biden’s part.

b161,

Can’t wait to see Biden take the “high road” and just sit back and let this play out and get himself executed. 🤦‍♀️

nondescripthandle,

Leaving unused options on the table then turning the country over to a fascist is a lot like being the guy who sits at the table with fascists and if Biden loses without trying something Im gonna call him that.

Fapper_McFapper,

He’s literally telling us what he’s going to do with a second term and we’re still not taking this asshat seriously. Like I said, we seem to be asleep at the wheel.

fukurthumz420,

just a bunch of cowards really

tiefling,

Biden and co will literally get hunted down by Trump’s goons if he doesn’t use his new powers to do what needs to be done

sp3tr4l,

Wonderful.

The delusional Q Anon ‘secret military tribunals any day now’ belief now stands a reasonable chance of actually happening.

Avatar_of_Self,

Doubtful that the military would actually do that. Trump while President was reportedly annoyed at basically being told ‘no’ that General Kelly said that:

The President’s loud complaint to [then-White House chief of staff] John Kelly one day was typical: “You [f------] generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?”

“Which generals?” Kelly asked.

“The German generals in World War II,” Trump responded.

“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Kelly said.

But, of course, Trump did not know that. “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” the President replied.

The President may be Commander-in-Chief but the oath is to the Constitution. Obeying the President and officers are also a part of the oath but with the caveat that it is according to the regulations and UCMJ. You not only don’t have to but you’re taught to explicitly not follow an illegal order in the US military.

Not that US military members have given illegal orders that were followed but it is a little different to basically order the military to essentially start enforcing essentially a government coup for a politician against the US’ own citizens.

sp3tr4l, (edited )

I mean, I agree with you that most military leaders and soldiers would not do this.

But your own example kind of shows the likely strategy:

What did Hitler do? What did Stalin do?

Fire or banish or kill enough leaders until you get ones that will listen to you, and re orient your troop pools so that you have a decent number of whole units that are ideologically aligned and thus likely to comply.

Trump’s entire modus operandi, now crystalized in extreme detail with Project 2025, has been figure out a way to replace everyone who is not an ideologically aligned stooge willing to literally break existing laws to carry out the whims of the God Emperor, at literally every level of government.

I obviously cannot know that this would be successful or in what timeframe.

I can only look to history for many examples of similar things occuring, and see more and more checked boxes making this more likely.

I’m sure the militaries of many other coup’d countries are told not to follow illegal orders, and I’m also sure that many in our modern military and time would resist, perhaps even violently as Stauffenberg did.

But the trend is looking astonishingly bad.

Zorsith,
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Can we please just label the republican party a domestic terrorist organization already?

JustZ, (edited )
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    Pandantic,
    @Pandantic@midwest.social avatar

    If Trump has his way, Ai will point to his post as a reason to do just that.

    smnwcj,

    Biden could, according to SCOTUS.

    fukurthumz420,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    explodicle,

    If you’re worried what will happen if Trump wins the election, then you should consider buying “Trump insurance” by betting online that he’ll win.

    When enough people bet that Trump will win, then it creates an incentive for someone who can influence the outcome to make a short term leveraged bet that Trump will lose.

    You’ll gain utility from the trade even if you lose the bet.

    slurpinderpin,

    I call this a “heart hedge”

    fukurthumz420,

    do you need some official office to sanction you’re beliefs? they’re fucking terrorists. what are you going to do about it?

    ArbitraryValue,

    Hah, I expect that Mitch McConnell is still going to vote for him.

    samus12345,
    @samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

    Of course. So will Pence.

    dephyre,
    @dephyre@lemmy.world avatar

    Non-paywall; archive.is/…/trump-liz-cheney-treason-jail.html

    IHeartBadCode,

    Thanks man.

    DrSleepless,

    We live in the worst time line.

    fluxion,

    How bout we jail this insurrectionist for high crimes against the United States

    Volkditty,

    No can do, high crimes aren’t against the law.

    linearchaos,
    @linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

    Biden can do whatever he wants now right?

    experbia,
    @experbia@lemmy.world avatar

    no, the president (whoever it currently is) can do whatever he wants without any explanation needed as long as the Supreme Court (the majority selected by and loyal to trump) deems it an “official presidential action”. unfortunately, all actions Biden can take would obviously fall into the “unofficial” classification because, you know, reasons of some kind and definitely no corruption.

    fukurthumz420,

    keep waiting on the state to do the right thing and see where that gets you.

    snooggums,
    @snooggums@midwest.social avatar

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell,

    Lol, the angry orange wants to punish the turtle man who covered for him. You pick the best allies there turtle boy!

    barsquid,

    It would be schadenfreude to see Donald execute McConnell, but I wouldn’t be able to really enjoy it.

    samus12345,
    @samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

    He’s on his way out, anyway, so the time it would have been a benefit is gone.

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