Fact Check: Did Karoline Leavitt say 'America can’t function' if co-equal branches check Trump's power?

WASHINGTON, DC: A claim about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissing the role of co-equal branches of government is circulating widely online.

The claim has been shared across platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, and Threads, where users are amplifying and reacting to it.

Claim: Karoline Leavitt said ‘America cannot function’ in Trump's powers are checked

According to the claim, Leavitt said: “America cannot function if President Trump has to deal with co-equal branches of government having the ability to check his power.”

The alleged quote gained traction shortly after a May 29, 2025, White House press briefing, where Leavitt defended Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” global tariff plan following a unanimous federal court ruling against it. 

Fact Check: False, no evidence backs the viral claim

While Leavitt did use the phrase “America cannot function” several times during her briefing, she never followed it with the words attributed to her in viral posts. 

A keyword search of the full alleged quote yielded no credible results from mainstream news outlets or government transcripts. If Leavitt had claimed that checks on executive power made America unworkable, it would have been widely reported.

Snopes also confirmed there was no record of Leavitt ever making the statement, and the official transcript shows her words were taken out of context.

What Karoline Leavitt actually said

Here is the relevant portion of her May 29 remarks:

“President Trump correctly believes that 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 are dependent on foreign adversaries.”

“Three judges of the US Court of International Trade disagreed and brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump, to stop him from carrying out the mandate that the American people gave him. These judges failed to acknowledge that the president of the United States has core foreign affairs powers and authority given to him by Congress to protect the United States’ economy and national security. Congress had created the National Emergency Act to provide the congressional framework to strike down improper IEPA use.”

“And any questions over whether President Trump improperly imposed these IEPA tariffs were already adjudicated in Congress following ‘Liberation Day.’ Congress firmly rejected an effort led by Sen Rand Paul and Democrats to terminate the president’s reciprocal tariffs. The courts should have no role here. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process. America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”

This is not the first time Leavitt has had words misattributed to her. A previous viral claim falsely alleged she said, “avoid woke things like math, and you’ll love the tariffs.” That, too, was fabricated.