U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin D-Mich. rehearses ahead of giving the Democratic response which will follow President Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress, in Wyandotte on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin's office said Michigan State Police responded to a bomb threat at her home on Nov. 21, a day after President Donald Trump called her and other Democrats traitors for putting out a video message to members of the military telling them it's their right and duty to disobey illegal orders.

A message posted on social media platform X by a spokesperson for Slotkin, D-Michigan, said the senator wasn't at her home in Holly, Michigan at the time of the threat. State Police searched the premises "and confirmed no one was in danger," the message said.

Slotkin's office didn't provide further details about the threat or Slotkin's whereabouts but referred questions to Michigan State Police, who didn't immediately respond to calls and emails from the Free Press. The social media message added, "U.S. Capitol Police will continue to investigate and hopefully hold accountable those responsible."

Slotkin got round-the-clock protection from Capitol Police on Thursday, Nov. 20, after Trump went on his social media platform Truth Social and blasted Slotkin and five other congressional Democrats for having posted a video in which they urged members of the military to disobey any unlawful orders they might receive.

Trump called the message seditious and the members of Congress who posted it traitors. He suggested they could be jailed and in a separate post said seditious behavior could be punishable by death.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said later on Nov. 20 that Trump was not calling for any member of Congress to be executed but that the message threatened the chain of command and that it suggested "that the president has given illegal orders, which he has not."

On Nov. 21, Trump went on Fox News Radio and reiterated that he's not proposing to execute anyone but that the Democratic members who made the video "are in serious trouble."

In an interview with NBC News on Nov. 20, Slotkin said "the threat level just went through the roof" after Trump made his social media comments, even though the video had been posted to X days earlier. "I mean the shift was immediate," she said. "We've had hundreds and hundreds, if not, you know, closer to 1,000 threats come in to our phones, our emails − all our Senate systems."

Military personnel could face court-martial for failing to obey a lawful order but are not duty-bound to follow a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime or violates military practice or the U.S. Constitution, and could face legal liability for doing so.

In their video, Slotkin and the others didn't specify any particular order that might be illegal. But Slotkin, a former CIA officer and acting assistant Defense Department secretary, and other critics of Trump's have questioned his use of military personnel in securing American cities. They also question the administration's destruction of suspected drug-trafficking craft at sea without express authorization from Congress.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on X @tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: US senator's home is target of bomb threat after Trump calls her a traitor

Reporting by Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press

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