White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Wednesday accused the media of "fearmongering the American people" into believing the "narrative" that the efforts from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to cut back government spending have led to a constitutional crisis.
"I've been hearing those words a lot lately," she told members of the media at the daily White House press briefing, reports Mediaite. "The real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump's basic executive authority."
Federal judges have blocked several of Trump's actions including freezing spending on federal grants and loans, banning birthright citizenship, and dismantling the U.S. Agency on International Development (USAID).
Talk among Democrats and legal experts about a constitutional crisis also has been fueled after Vice President J.D. Vance said in a recent social media post that judges do not have the authority to control the "legitimate power" of the executive branch."If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal," he posted on X. "If a judge tried to command the attorney general … how to use her discretion as prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."
Leavitt said Wednesday that the White House believes the judges who have blocked Trump's orders are "acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law."
"They have issued at least 12 injunctions against this administration in the past 14 days, often without citing any evidence or grounds for their lawsuits," she said. "This is part of a larger concerted effort by Democrat activists and nothing more than the continuation of the weaponization of justice against President Trump."
And offering a "quick news flash," to the "liberal judges who are supporting their obstructionist efforts," Leavitt pointed out that "77 million Americans voted to elect this president. And each injunction is an abuse of the rule of law and an attempt to thwart the will of the people."
Trump has stated that he will comply with the court orders while appealing them, and Leavitt said Wednesday that "we will continue to seek every legal remedy to ultimately overturn these radical injunctions and ensure President Trump's policies can be enacted."
Several recent reports have warned that Trump's administration is making an unconstitutional power grab, including The Atlantic, which published an article in early February titled "The Constitutional Crisis Is Here."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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