Longtime Notre Dame women’s basketball coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw called on Congress to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump amid the ongoing anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis.
McGraw, who retired after the 2019–20 season, shared a long statement on her X account on Wednesday afternoon. The two-time national champion said that the United States is “in crisis” and said that the FBI is complicit with ICE “terrorizing” U.S. cities. McGraw also alleged that ICE is kidnapping, assaulting, and killing U.S. citizens, as well as arguing that the police “are powerless.”
Minneapolis residents continue protesting the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good, who was killed in her car on January 7. The Department of Homeland Security has argued that Good intended to use her vehicle as a weapon in an act of domestic terrorism; videos show her putting her car into drive when one agent had his arm inside the vehicle and another was directly in front of the car.
“We can’t just protest when White people get killed,” McGraw wrote. “We the people means all of us. We need accountability for the crimes ICE is committing and we need it now, but we also need something much more important.”
— Muffet McGraw (@MuffetMcGraw) January 14, 2026
McGraw then turned her attention to Trump, who has criticized Minnesota politicians, including Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, in recent days.
“Something that we are desperate to find and that’s HOPE,” McGraw wrote. “We need hope that Congress will rise to the challenge and fulfill their oath of office. We need hope that Republicans will grow a spine and impeach this megalomaniac and restore the values that we believed in before this administration took over.
“We need our democracy back,” she concluded. “But until that day comes I will do what I can and stay in the fight – I hope you will too.”
McGraw’s post had nearly 90,000 views and over 1,700 likes at publication. Trump had not publicly responded to her comments as of Thursday morning, though he did post on Truth Social that he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act — allowing active-duty military personnel to perform law enforcement duties — if the protests do not stop. As of January 15, the exact number of protesters arrested is unknown.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law & stop the professional agitators & insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done…” – President Trump pic.twitter.com/d7XJMA7qUU
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 15, 2026
Former Notre Dame standout Brianna Turner, who is Black, praised her former coach in an X post.
“So happy to have played under Coach McGraw,” Turner wrote, adding that she “unexpectedly learned so many lessons that didn’t have to do with basketball.”
McGraw is the latest basketball figure to comment on the ongoing Minnesota protests. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr accused the U.S. government of lying about Good’s death, and Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers called the incident “straight-up murder.”
A four-time AP Coach of the Year, McGraw retired with a 936–293 record across 38 seasons at Lehigh (1982–83 through 1986–87) and Notre Dame (1987–88 through 2019–20). She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017, and the school honored her with a statue in front of Purcell Pavilion, the school’s basketball arena, in December 2023.
