McGovern Responds to Trump’s Dangerous Call for Political Violence

“Donald Trump’s Statement is a Death Threat.”

Washington, November 20, 2025

WASHINGTON—Today, Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, issued the following statement condemning President Donald Trump’s death threat directed toward Members of Congress:

“Let’s not mince words. Donald Trump’s statement is a death threat. The sitting President of the United States is calling for the murder of his political opponents. We cannot lose sight of how shocking, dangerous, and abnormal this is.

“For the record—the video that triggered Trump’s death threat simply restates current U.S. law. Members of the United States Armed Forces do not have to obey an order that is manifestly unlawful. That principle stretches back to the founding of our country. In 1950, it was written into the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And it was embedded into international law during the Nuremberg Trials, when the world agreed that ‘just following orders’ is not a valid excuse for committing war crimes.

“I want the country to hear this clearly: do not be intimidated. We will not let Donald Trump normalize violence as a tool of political power. And we will not let the United States slide into the darkness he is trying to drag us into.”