Ex DHS official warns Trump's threats about jailing Democrats 'are very, very real’

WASHINGTON, DC: Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor has warned that the threats against the critics of President Donald Trump are not only just rhetoric but also dangerous.

His comments came as Trump recently launched a late-night attack against Democratic lawmakers who urged the military and intelligence to refuse illegal orders.

The personal toll of Trump's threats

Speaking on 'MS Now', the host Alex Witt asked Taylor, “Miles, you’ve got personal experience with being publicly threatened by the president. What emotions does this trigger for you? And what are these targets and their families going through right now?”

Taylor replied, “Well, the threats are very, very real, Alex. And I’m certainly not comforted by the fact that the White House has walked it back from hanging these members of Congress to only putting them in prison.” 

“That doesn't give me a lot of comfort. And you know, as I’ve said to folks before, when Donald Trump accuses someone of sedition and treason, even if he’s not serious about those words, his supporters are serious about those words, and they make sure of it.” 

“They make sure to threaten you, to dox you, to put your family in danger. That’s exactly what happened to us.” 

He concluded, “And then it is often the blast radius is often beyond yourself and becomes your family members and friends. I’ve had my wife threatened. I’ve had my one-year-old daughter threatened because I simply exercised my First Amendment rights to speak out against this president.” 

Pattern of illegal actions in the Trump administration

He went on to say, “But Alex, this also leads me to the core of what these democratic lawmakers were saying was not that these people in the military should disobey the lawful orders of the commander in chief. They should disobey the illegal orders.” 

“And it strikes me, Alex, that within 48 hours of Donald Trump first coming out and condemning them. A judge found those troop deployments in DC to be illegal. Military lawyers thought that the boat strikes were illegal in the Caribbean.”

“There was a probe into illegal mortgage inquiries in the Trump administration. A judge resumed probes of illegal ICE flights, and then topped it all off. A study showed that the Justice Department has illegally defied the courts 26 times in this administration.”

“That’s just a sample within 48 hours of the illegal things that this administration is requiring people to do.”

Trump demands jail for Democrats

Trump, on Saturday, delivered another late-night attack on Democratic lawmakers, this time targeting a recent video in which six Democrats urged military and intelligence officials to refuse illegal orders. 

In a late-night Truth Social post, Trump wrote in all caps that the lawmakers “SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW.”

The post referred to a video released on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, by Sen Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. In it, Slotkin and five other lawmakers warned that “threats to the Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but right here at home.”

Each of them took turns reading from a joint statement, telling members of the military and intelligence community, “You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders.”