Ahead of expected “No Kings” protests across the country in response to President Donald Trump’s policies and military parade, some social media users accused White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt of insulting the constitutional system of checks and balances.
On June 12, an X user posted an image of Leavitt, with this her alleged quote: “America cannot function if President Trump has to deal with co-equal branches of government having the ability to check his power.”
“Wtf! Wtf!” the X user wrote.
The quote has been shared on multiple platforms including Instagram, Threads and Facebook. But Leavitt never made this statement.
In a May 29 White House press briefingLeavitt did say “America cannot function” in a critique of the judiciary, but the quote shared on social media is a distortion.
Sign up for PolitiFact texts
Here are the key comments she made while discussing legal challenges over the Trump administration’s tariffs.
-
Leavitt criticized the judicial branch for “inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process.”
-
“America cannot function safely long-term if we are unable to scale advanced domestic manufacturing capacity, however, our own secure critical supply chains and our defense industrial base is dependent on foreign adversaries.”
-
“America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”
We did not find the alleged quotation in Google searches of major news outlets’ reports, social media or White House footage.
We rate the claim that Leavitt said, “America cannot function if President Trump has to deal with co-equal branches of government having the ability to check his power,” False.
