Democratic U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin–She’s Under Federal “Investigation” for Calling Upon U.S. Servicemembers to Refuse to Obey Illegal Orders January 16, 2026
Dictator Donald has repeatedly told his MAGA extremist cult, “I am your retribution.” Remember, he also stated that chilling comment during his 2024 re-election campaign. Many people keep telling us not to take Donald “so literally.” How wrong they are! The late poet Maya Angelou once correctly noted, “ When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” https://www.facebook.com>MayaAngelou>posts>wh… Since his re-election, Trump and his extremist allies have been escalating their campaign to exact retribution on those Dictator Donald views as his “enemies.” These have included an “investigation” by Trump-ally U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro. She, on Trump’s behalf, has gone after an increasing list of high-profile targets who have dared to oppose Donald in any way. One of Donald’s most recent “investigative” targets has been Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, because Trump doesn’t like the way this legally independent official is conducting the nation’s monetary policy. The latest people to be snared in Trump’s “investigative” dragnet are a series of Democratic legislators, Arizona U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, Colorado U.S. Representative Jason Crow, Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, New Hampshire U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, and Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin. All of these Trump “enemies” bravely served our country in the military or the C.I.A. https://first.last@nytimes.com/ All of these congressmembers and Senators reported they had received inquiries from U.S. Atty. Pirro “requesting” that she have an interview with them or their private lawyers. https://first.last@nytimes.com
And why did U.S. Trumpist Attorney Pirro ask these lawmakers or their private counsels for
these interviews? This group, according to the New York Times, is being “investigated” for their participation in a video urging that military service members resist illegal orders. https://first.last@nytimes.com Translation: These respected legislators are exercising their constitutional First Amendment right to freedom of speech, a core tenet of our democracy. Their comments are perfectly legitimate as well. U.S. military policy, in fact, requires servicemembers not to obey illegal orders. Not only is this part of our military code, but when we prosecuted high-ranking Nazis at Nuremberg,Germany after WWII for crimes against humanity, killing millions of Jews and other European civilians, we found that the Nazi defendants’ excuses of only “carrying out orders” was wrong, because orders to murder innocent civilians are illegal and they should never have been followed. Dictator Trump, of course, could care less about freedom of speech and following illegal orders. He has gone ballistic. Dictator Donald called the video message “treasonous.” He amplified a social media post suggesting that the six legislators on this video “should be hanged.” https://npr.org Several of these legislators reported receiving death threats and bomb scares.https://npr.org Senator Slotkin aptly stated, “This is the President’s playbook. Truth doesn’t matter, facts don’t matter. And anyone who disagrees with him becomes an enemy and he weaponizes the federal government against them. It’s legal intimidation and physical intimidation meant to get you to shut up.” Slotkin further added, “Right now speaking out against the abuse of power is the most patriotic thing we can do.” https://npr.org Meet Senator Slotkin.
First-term Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin (49) has been called a rising Democratic star since she first won election to the U.S. House in 2018.https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com, 2026, National Journal, 2024, p. 907 Slotkin grew up in MI in a prominent family. Her grandfather’s meatpacking company was the hot dog vendor at Detroit Tigers baseball games. Those frankfurters were so popular that they were sold in grocery stores under the name “Ball Park Franks.” Slotkin earned her Bachelor’s at Cornell University and a Master’s from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com, 2026, National Journal, 2024, p. 907
During her first week as a graduate student, Slotkin lived through the 9/11 Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in New York City, which happened a few miles away from her. She stated that “that terrible day changed the trajectory of my life.” Because of 9/11, Slotkin decided that after she graduated from Columbia, she “would join the intelligence community and work to prevent future terrorist attacks.” She joined the C.I.A. as a Middle East analyst and was deployed for three tours over five years. During that time, Slotkin held national security and intelligence posts in the W. Bush and Obama White Houses as well as in the State Department. She personally briefed both of these presidents.https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com, 2026, National Journal, 2024, p. 907 Under Obama, she also served in the Defense Department as the principal adviser to the undersecretary of Defense on security and policy issues, as well as acting assistant secretary for international security affairs. She worked on international negotiations in fighting the ISIS terrorist group as well as responding to Russian aggression. She is fluent in Arabic and Swahili. https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com , 2026, National Journal, 2024, p. 907,https://en.wikipedia.org/
After leaving the Defense Department, in January 2017, Slotkin moved back to her family’s farm in Holly, MI, where she owned and operated Pinpoint Consulting. https://en.wikipedia.org/
She decided to run for Congress in the then MI 8th District when she saw its Rep. GOPer Mike Bishop smiling at a White House ceremony in the first Trump administration that celebrated the repeal of Obamacare by the House. Slotkin called Bishop’s vote “a dereliction of duty. We decided to fire him that day.”https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com, 2026, National Journal, 2024, pp. 907-908 This 2018 race was a very close one, but Slotkin won, 51%-47% with heavy support from Lansing voters and her emphasizing health care. In 2020, Slotkin again won a narrow race getting 50.9% of the vote. She explained in town halls with hostile protestors why she voted to impeach Donald for shaking down Ukraine. In 2022, Slotkin’s district was renumbered as the MI 7th, and she faced another narrow race. This time, she won with 46.5% of the vote in the most expensive 2022 House race. https://en.wikipedia.org In 2024, Slotkin ran for the U.S. Senate to replace retiring Democrat Debbie Stabenow. Again, she was in another nail-biter, and again, she won against well-known former House GOPer Mike Rogers. Rogers also had military and national security credentials but had served on Trump’s first transition team and had interviewed to be Trump’s FBI director when he fired James Comey. This time, Slotkin won 48.6%- 48.3% while Trump carried MI by 1.4 points. Slotkin, who is Jewish, still won the Arab-American areas of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, which Harris lost. Slotkin also did better than Harris in blue-collar GOP- leaning Macomb County and tied Rogers in key Saginaw County. Slotkin’s ability to win a 2024 Trump state and swingy House districts gave her much prominence in the Senate. She was, therefore, chosen in March 2025 to give the rebuttal to Trump’s joint address in Congress.https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com, 2026, National Journal, 2024, pp. 908-909
In the Senate, Slotkin sits on Agriculture, Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Veterans’ Affairs. https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com, 2026, National Journal, 2024, p.907 Slotkin is considered a fairly bipartisan legislator. After George Floyd’s death in Minnesota, Slotkin co-sponsored police reform. She voted for Biden’s key Inflation Reduction Act and his Build Back Better Act. She voted for the 2022 Assault Weapons Ban Act while in the House. As previously mentioned, she supports Obamacare. She advocates strong aid to student loan borrowers. After her 2024 Senate win, Slotkin stated that identity politics “needs to go the way of the dodo bird.” She rightly believes that people need to be looked at as “independent Americans.” Slotkin also understands that “Democrats can’t fight with one arm tied behind our back, when Republicans go nuclear when they redistrict their congressional and state districts in Texas.” In her words, “if they’re proposing to rig the game… we’re going to get in that game and fight.” https://en.wikipedia.org/ She, therefore, correctly backs Gov. Newsom’s successful attempt to re-district CA to counter TX and VA’s actions in this area as well.
With her background, Senator Slotkin is someone who will not be intimidated by Dictator Donald’s attempts to silence her for exercising her First Amendment Rights. We must get behind her and her fellow Democrats trying to save our democracy.
