Mass. Rep. McGovern: The nation’s ‘constitutional crisis’ is here (2025)

President Donald Trump’s attacks on higher education, law firms and other institutions, abetted by Republicans on Capitol Hill, have thrust the nation into a constitutional crisis, a senior Massachusetts lawmaker said Sunday.

"I believe we’re at a constitutional crisis,” McGovern said. “I’m not sure we have a full consensus on that yet, but we’re getting there. I mean, this president is ignoring the Constitution,” U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-2nd District, told WCVB-TV’S “On the Record” program.

Trump is “denying people due process and doesn’t seem to believe that Congress matters,” McGovern continued. I mean, he’s behaving more like a king than like a president, so people should be worried.”

McGovern, who represents Worcester and other central Massachusetts communities, said it’s up to Republicans who control the U.S. House and Senate to stand up to the White House.

• Read More: Mass Gov. Healey: Trump’s funding cuts, attacks on Harvard are ‘bad for science’

“I’m not even sure Trump can spell ‘constitution,’” McGovern, the ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said. “But the bottom line is that he’s behaving in a way that is eroding [the] checks and balances in this country, and moving in a direction that I think smacks of authoritarianism.”

McGovern pronounced himself “horrified” by the administration’s hardline on illegal immigrants, including a case involving a Tufts University graduate student.

“This is stuff you would expect to see in Russia or China or North Korea with a police state,” he said.

“With the United States of America, people are entitled to due process. I mean, there’s a report today that ice picked up a US citizen who had a birth certificate to prove that he was a US citizen,” McGovern continued, apparently referring to a Massachusetts lawyer and his wife who said they were detained at the Canadian border last week.

“People are fighting what’s happening on college campuses where students who are here legally are having their visas revoked without any explanation,” McGovern said. “I mean, it is chilling. And again, I think this is a moment when we all have to push back, not just politicians but average citizens.”

McGovern said he “applauded” Harvard University’s decistion to not accept a series of demands set forward by the Trump administration, putting $9 billion in federal funding at risk.

“To give in is to basically say that there no longer will be academic freedom in this country, that Donald Trump and his administration will dictate what you can teach, who can teach, what students can go there. I mean, come on,” McGovern said.

“And by the way, all colleges and universities ought to stand with Harvard. We need a united front. That’s the only way you’re going to stop this unjust and unjustified encroachment on academic freedom. Republicans used to think freedom was a good thing. I don’t know what the hell’s happened over the last few years,” he said.