Senator Mark Kelly told the military to disobey Donald Trump.
Posted by The Rob Carson Show, Checked
- Sources
- 1 contradict4 support3 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 70%
The Rob Carson ShowOct 5, 2026
Kelly did urge troops to refuse illegal orders in a November video, which supports part of the claim. However, the sources say he told them to refuse illegal orders, not to disobey Trump personally, so the claim's characterization of the target is contradicted.
A detail. The sources confirm the gist; the verdict faults a detail such as a date, number or wording.
What was said
… I like Ohio. It's a lovely Midwestern state, by the way, kind of the east side of the Midwest. I'm a Midwesterner from the heartland of America. But you compare that to what the Democrats have to offer, here is Mark Kelly. He's a senator and he actually told the military to disobey Donald Trump, but he didn't take any heat for it, and he considers himself to be a man of honor. He's the opposite of that, and here is his, here's the Democrats plan to to make things affordable. You want to guess what it is? It's to raise taxes. …
The Rob Carson Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. HuffPost reports that the lawmakers encouraged troops to refuse 'illegal' orders rather than disobeying Trump personally, as Trump suggested. This directly contradicts the claim's framing that Kelly told the military to disobey Trump.[3]
Supports. Kelly appeared in a video, with five other lawmakers, telling service members 'Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.' This establishes that he urged troops to disobey certain orders.[4][5][6][7]
Context. Reuters describes the video as urging service members to reject illegal orders, and the Pentagon opened an investigation into Kelly over those remarks. The sources do not describe any instruction to disobey Trump himself.[1][2][8]
Context. A federal judge described Kelly's comments about refusing illegal orders as 'unquestionably protected' by the First Amendment and temporarily blocked penalties against him, which bears on how the video is characterized.[5]
Sources
8 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 tier 2, 1 tier 1, 3 not rated
- 1US Senator Mark Kelly sues Pentagon chief Hegseth over demotion threatsreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2Sen. Kelly says Pentagon is investigating him to halt dissentapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3Donald Trump's Rant About People Who ‘Disobey' Him Gets Its Own Insurrectionhuffpost.com · tier 2 · cited for: contradicts
- 4Senator Mark Kelly says he will 'seriously consider' running ...bbc.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 5Mark Kelly's video on refusing illegal orders was protected ...reason.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 6Pentagon court-martial threat against Sen. Mark Kelly over ...cronkitenews.azpbs.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7Mark Kelly reveals he had to hire personal security to deal with death threats since Trump's attacks over ‘illegal orders'independent.co.uk · not rated · cited for: supports
- 8Pentagon says it's investigating Sen. Mark Kelly for video urging troops to defy 'illegal orders'wbrz.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post