U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media following a call with military service members on Thanksgiving Day in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., Nov. 27, 2025.
Anna Rose Layden | Reuters
On Friday night, the White House named the Boston Globe, CBS News and The Independent as “media offenders of the week,” criticizing their coverage of a video released by Democratic lawmakers telling the U.S. military they can disobey illegal orders.
The Boston Globe, CBS News and The Independent did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Last week, six Democrats, all with military or national security experience, released a video reminding service members that they have the right to refuse illegal orders. President Donald Trump accused them of “seditious behavior” and said that in “the old days” that was “punishable by death.”
The FBI is now seeking to interview Senator Mark Kelly and the other Democrats who appear in the video.
The White House has denied that Trump ever issued illegal orders. However, some experts have said the Pentagon’s deadly campaign against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean is illegal.
On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth verbally ordered the killing of all crew members on a ship suspected of drug trafficking. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a Marine Corps veteran, told the newspaper that Americans will eventually be prosecuted for this, “either as a war crime or as simple murder.”
