WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim McGovern said Wednesday that “Donald Trump is a national embarrassment,” in a one-sentence post that named no event. The same day the president greeted Chinese President Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews, and McGovern convened a press conference demanding that human rights be placed on the agenda of the state visit.
McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, ranking member of the House Rules Committee, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and ranking House Democrat on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, posted the line on X at 12:33 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 23. The post quoted no other account.
Donald Trump is a national embarrassment.
A 316th Wing Public Affairs story says Trump and Melania Trump greeted Xi and Peng Liyuan at Joint Base Andrews on Sept. 23, that the pair walked a red carpet, and that a flyover took place during the arrival. The story calls the occasion Xi’s first state visit since 2015. Photographs are credited to U.S. Air Force photographers. The White House posted a video of the greeting.
A White House statement dated Sept. 21 said the Sept. 24 State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn, State Floor, and Rose Garden would feature 479 military personnel from all branches of the armed forces, with a state dinner in the East Room that evening and a National Archives visit on Sept. 25. A later First Lady release said the dinner would open with Schramsberg Blanc de Noir, the wine used at the 1972 Nixon–Zhou toast in Beijing, and that entertainment would include “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, the Army Chorus, and the Army Strings.
McGovern’s office listed a 1 p.m. press conference the same day as the Andrews greeting under the title “McGovern Demands Trump Get Tough on China’s Abysmal Human Rights Record.” That evening he quoted a photograph of the Andrews carpet and wrote that Trump was “literally rolling out the red carpet for a brutal dictator.” On Thursday he posted, “No Xi in DC without human rights ON THE AGENDA.” Those later posts are the only ones that attach a subject to the “embarrassment” line.
The CECC exists under Title III of Public Law 106-286. McGovern signed a May 7 commission letter asking Trump to raise named prisoner cases with Xi, including Jimmy Lai and Pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin. A July CECC monitor said Jin reached the United States on July 3 after Trump raised the case in Beijing. The commission’s 2025 annual report described what it called broken PRC human rights promises and overseas repression, including on U.S. soil. None of those documents describe the Andrews ceremony as a combat deployment. The military facts on the record are protocol: an Air Force base greeting, a flyover, and 479 service members assigned to a state arrival.
At the Sept. 24 welcome ceremony, Xi said he had come “to carry on our friendship, expand cooperation, and promote the well-being of both our peoples,” according to the full text published by CGTN. He said the hope of the relationship “lies in our people, and its future lies with the young,” and announced “an invitation for 100,000 young Americans to visit China for exchanges and study in the coming five years.” That expands a 2023 San Francisco pledge to invite 50,000 Americans over five years, a target Xinhua said was met ahead of schedule. Xi also said two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, would go to Zoo Atlanta “in a few days.” He recalled Americans and Chinese as World War II allies. Xinhua separately reported that Trump and Xi agreed to support each other in hosting the 2026 APEC leaders’ meeting and the G20 summit.
The Office of the First Lady said Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan toured the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art on Sept. 24, viewed the Peacock Room, and heard a youth choir from Hope Chinese School. White House video pages list a Marine One and South Lawn helipad tour Trump gave Xi the same day. Those are the cooperation items announced around the visit. McGovern’s post does not address them. Massachusetts’s 2nd District votes Nov. 3.