HADLEY — U.S. Rep Jim McGovern weighed in on the chaos unleashed by the administration of President Donald Trump this week with a sudden directive to freeze most federal funding and grants, only to reverse the plan a short time later.

McGovern, whose congressional district includes Northampton, Amherst and most of Franklin County, was in Hadley on Wednesday to meet with local farmers and Department of Labor representatives in a gathering that was off-limits to the press. Speaking to the Gazette after the meeting, McGovern condemned the recent actions taken by the Trump administration.

“I think what the president did is unlawful, it’s unconstitutional and it’s just cruel,” McGovern said. “All the federal agencies I talked to yesterday, none of them were informed in advance that this was coming.”

The memorandum to freeze all federal funding, released on Tuesday by the federal Office of Management and Budget, had left states, municipalities, and individuals scrambling to figure it out if the freeze effected widely used assistance programs such as Medicaid, Section 8 housing and Meals on Wheels. All 50 states reported that Medicaid payment portals had temporarily stopped working, and a federal judge blocked the order from taking place late in the day, putting it on hold until Monday.

The memo rescinded on Wednesday, but even that failed to clarify how federal funding may be affected, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeting that “this is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” and that “the president’s [executive orders] on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

McGovern said that even many of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives appeared to be baffled by the move.

“Even Republicans I talked to yesterday, they had no idea this was coming,” he said. “I got calls from mayors, from a couple of university heads, city managers, town managers, all saying ,‘We just heard this, we just got this memo,’ with no warning.”

McGovern also accused Trump and other Republicans for being out of touch with needs of ordinary Americans, as evidenced by the freeze announcement.

“Trump has no concept of what real life is for most people in this country,” McGovern said. “He doesn’t have to worry about whether he could afford to pay for health care, or pay for prescription drugs. He lives in an alternative universe that quite frankly is very dangerous right now.”

Though the block issued by the federal judge and the rescinding of the memo appear to prevent any federal freeze from immediately taking place, McGovern said it is unlikely to deter Trump from trying again in the future.

“Trump lost round one, but there are multiple rounds here, and I think it’s going to be really important to get the word out to people about what the adverse consequences of what he wants to do is,” McGovern said. “This is not about helping middle class families, it’s not about helping the vulnerable in our communities. This is about enhancing his wealthy friends.”

Other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation also weighed in on Trump’s recent actions. Rep. Richard Neal on Tuesday called the attempted freeze “clearly unconstitutional” and said it amounted to an act of “attention grabbing” by the president.

Neal also put out a statement on Wednesday further criticizing Trump’s actions.

“There is no need to unnecessarily frighten the American people with empty rhetoric, which is what this turned out to be,” Neal stated. “Attacking, or threatening to attack, programs that benefit our families, students, elderly, and veterans is not good governance. Any future attempts to pause funding that has already been authorized by Congress will be stopped dead in its tracks.”

On Wednesday, Sen. Ed Markey put out a statement following the rescinding of the memo, saying it was part of a “callously cruel plan” of stopping essential federal funding.

“Trump’s administration isn’t governing — it’s careening from chaos to crisis that it created,” Markey said in the statement. “They’ll lie, disregard Congress, and now they’re bypassing the courts. We’ll need all of our collective engagement to make sure that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their unelected, unqualified henchmen keep our services going and don’t break the law.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.