WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said late Saturday that six Democrats involved in a video calling on military officers to refuse illegal commands “should be in jail.”

The Republican leader’s remarks came after he accused the Democratic lawmakers on Friday of “seditious behaviour, punishable by death.”

Democrats slammed Trump’s comments as “absolutely vile” threats against the six senators and representatives, all of whom have served in the military or intelligence community.

Trump took to social media on Saturday night, writing:

“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.”

He said that the Democrats’ message was “SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL” and that “THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID”.

The video posted on social media Friday called on the military to “refuse illegal orders” and featured Arizona’s Mark Kelly, Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin, along with Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

They did not specify which orders they were referring to, but Trump has ordered the National Guard into multiple US cities, in many cases against the wishes of local officials, in a bid to bring alleged rampant unrest under control.

Abroad, Trump has also ordered strikes on a series of alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have left more than 80 people dead and which experts say are illegal.

Trump has alluded to the death penalty on previous occasions.

In 2023, former US military officer Mark Milley told a journalist he had secretly called his Chinese counterpart after the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol to reassure Beijing that the United States remained “stable” and had no intention to attack China.

Trump subsequently wrote on social media that “in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”

• US boycott over alleged persecution of white South Africans.
• South African president achieved consensus for declaration.
• Threat of climate change mentioned despite US opposition.

Group of 20 leaders adopted a declaration addressing the climate crisis and other global challenges on Saturday over US objections, prompting the White House to accuse South Africa of weaponising its leadership of the group this year.

The declaration, which was drafted without input from the United States, “can’t be renegotiated,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson told reporters, reflecting strains between Pretoria and US President Donald Trump’s administration, which boycotted the event.

“We had the entire year of working towards this adoption and the past week has been quite intense,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.

Hours later, the White House said Ramaphosa was “refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency” after initially saying he would pass the gavel to ‘an empty chair.'”

“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 Leaders Declaration, despite consistent and robust US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponised their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. Trump looks forward to “restoring legitimacy” to the group next year, when the US holds the rotating presidency.

Ramaphosa, host of this weekend’s gathering of Group of 20 leaders in Johannesburg, had earlier said there was “overwhelming consensus” for a summit declaration.

But at the last minute, Argentina, whose far-right President Javier Milei is a close ally of Trump, quit the negotiations right before the envoys were about to adopt the draft text, South African officials said.

“Argentina, although it cannot endorse the declaration … remains fully committed to the spirit of cooperation that has defined the G20 since its conception,” its foreign minister Pablo Quirno said at the summit. Ramaphosa noted this, but went ahead with it anyway.

In explanation, Quirno said Argentina was concerned about how the document referred to geopolitical issues.

“Specifically it addresses the longstanding Middle East conflict in a manner that fails to capture its full complexity,” he said. The document mentions the conflict once, saying members agree to work for a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in … the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Declaration mentions climate change

Envoys from the G20 – which brings together the world’s major economies – drew up a draft leaders’ declaration on Friday without US involvement, four sources familiar with the matter said.

“It is a longstanding G20 tradition to issue only consensus deliverables, and it is shameful that the South African government is now trying to depart from this standard practice,” a senior Trump administration official said on Friday.

The declaration used the kind of language long disliked by the US administration: stressing the seriousness of climate change and the need to better adapt to it, praising ambitious targets to boost renewable energy and noting the punishing levels of debt service suffered by poor countries.

The mention of climate change was a snub to Trump, who doubts the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activities. US officials had indicated they would oppose any reference to it in the declaration.

In opening remarks to the summit, Ramaphosa said: “We should not allow anything to diminish the value, the stature and the impact of the first African G20 presidency.”

His bold tone was a striking contrast to his subdued decorum during his visit to the White House in May, in which he endured Trump repeating a false claim that there was a genocide of white farmers in South Africa, brushing aside Ramaphosa’s efforts to correct his facts.

Trump said US officials would not attend the summit because of allegations, widely discredited, that the host country’s Black majority government persecutes its white minority.

Trump rejects South Africa’s G20 agenda

The summit came at a time of heightened tensions between world powers over Russia’s war in Ukraine and fraught climate negotiations at the COP30 in Brazil.

“While the G20 diversity sometimes presents challenges, it also underscores the importance of finding common ground,” Japan Cabinet Public Affairs Secretary Maki Kobayashi told Reuters.

Commenting on Argentina’s absence from the final envoy meeting to agree on the text, Magwenya said: “Argentina (had) been participating quite meaningfully … in all the deliberations,” then never showed up to endorse the declaration on Friday. He added: “We have what we call sufficient consensus.”

The US president had also rejected the host nation’s agenda of promoting solidarity and helping developing nations adapt to weather disasters, transition to clean energy and cut their excessive debt costs.

“This G20 is not about the US,” South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told public broadcaster SABC. “We are all equal members of the G20. What it means is that we need to take a decision. Those of us who are here have decided this is where the world must go.”

But in a sign of the many geopolitical fissures underlying the agreed text, EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen warned in a speech about “the weaponisation of dependencies” which she said “only creates losers”.

This was an apparent veiled reference to China’s export curbs on rare earths vital for the world’s energy transition, as well as defence and digital technology.

China’s Premier Li Qiang called for unity amongst the G20 during a speech at the summit on Saturday, saying that differences in interests among parties and shortcomings in global cooperation are key obstacles to international unity.

“The G20 should face up to these problems, explore solutions and promote a return to the right track of unity and cooperation,” Li said in a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.

The South African presidency on Saturday reiterated its rejection of a US offer to send the US charge d’affaires for the G20 handover.

“The president will not hand over to a junior embassy official the presidency of the G20. It’s a breach of protocol that is not going to be accommodated,” Magwenya said.

Lamola later said that South Africa would assign a diplomat of the same rank as a charge d’affaires to hand over the G20 presidency at the Foreign Affairs Department.

US President Donald Trump has claimed that tariffs and foreign investment are bringing trillions of dollars into the United States and have made the country the wealthiest and most powerful in its history.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump reiterated his long-standing assertion that his tariff policies prevented between five and eight wars.

He said the stock market reached an all-time high for the 48th time in the past nine months, which he described as proof of the American economy’s strength.

Trump maintained that rising tariff revenues and foreign investment have significantly boosted national wealth and global influence.

On November 20, 2025, he claimed that he personally prevented a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan by threatening both nations with massive trade penalties.

His remarks come months after Pakistan shot down seven Indian warplanes, including three Rafale aircraft, in May 2025.

Speaking at the Saudi Investment Conference in Washington, Trump said he warned New Delhi and Islamabad of crippling economic repercussions during a period of heightened tensions.

“You know, India, Pakistan, they were going to go at it with nuclear weapons. I said, that’s okay, but I’m putting a 350 percent tariff on each country, no more trade with the United States,” Trump said.

He added, “Come back to me and I’ll take it down, but I’m not going to have you guys shooting nuclear weapons at each other, killing millions, and having nuclear dust floating over Los Angeles.”

“They said, we don’t like that. I said, I don’t care if you like it or not,” Trump said. “So I was all set. I told a 350 percent tariff to settle that war. If you, if you don’t, we’ll make a nice trade deal,” he added.

“Now, no other president would have done that. Another guy would have, like Joe Biden doesn’t even know what countries we’re talking about. He wouldn’t have any idea. There’d be no tariffs on anything. Just the whole world would go to hell,” Trump said.

“But no, I use tariffs to settle all these, not all of them. Five of the eight wars were settled because of the economy, because of trade, because of tariffs.

I’ll tell you what the Prime Minister of Pakistan (Shehbaz Sharif) called me,” Trump said, further quoting him, “Thank you very much.”

“He actually said, I saved millions. And he said in front of Susie, he said President Trump saved millions and millions of lives.”

“And I got a call from Prime Minister Modi saying, we’re done. I said, you’re done with what? ‘We’re not going to go to war’. I said, Thank you very much. Let’s make a deal,” Trump claimed.

“But I saved a lot of people, millions of people, on many other wars,” he added.

Though India has consistently denied any third-party intervention, Pakistan has praised Trump on multiple occasions, claiming that he brokered the ceasefire during the May conflict.