‘Not the Brag You Think It Is’: Jen Psaki Dunks on Trump Complaint About Courts Using His Own Words

In his presser on Friday after the Supreme Court gutted the ability of lower courts to use injunctions to stop his agenda and thwart his executive orders, President Donald Trump said that he’s been “hit with more nationwide injunctions than were issued in the entire 20th century,” a fact that MSNBC’s Jen Psaki also pointed out in her editorial remarks Friday trashing the Supreme Court.

The court issued a ruling in a case on birthright citizenship Friday, not on the merits of the issue itself or constitutionality of the practice, but on the use of so-called universal or nationwide injunctions as a means of putting a stop to implementation of Trump’s policies and Executive Orders, which has happened quite a lot in just his first six months in office.

Many on the right have praised the ruling for putting a stop to supposed judicial activism. And while some analysts have characterized it as an expansion of presidential power, they’ve also noted that it’s been a “problem” for presidents for some time, affecting both parties.

Psaki, in her opening, decried the decision as a surrender of power to Trump by the conservative majority on the court and painted the lower courts as the only bastion of hope against a Trump dictatorship. And she used Trump’s own words to dunk on him.

“So the only institutional bulwark against Trump’s autocratic impulses has been the third branch of government, the courts. And as Trump has pushed the limits of his power, the courts have had to check him over and over and over again — largely the lower courts,” she said, as they issue, “nationwide injunctions to halt his executive orders as they decide what authority he actually has under the Constitution.”

“In fact, Trump’s actions have been so extreme the courts have had to use that power to stop him more than any other president in modern history. Any other president,” Psaki continued. “And that’s something that even Trump himself admits.”

She then played Trump from his presser saying: “We’ve been hit with more nationwide injunctions than were issued in the entire 20th century together. Think of it more than the entire twentieth century. Me.”

“Yes, you. The courts have had to stop you, Donald Trump, more than any other president,” Psaki responded. “It’s not the brag you think it is either, by the way.”

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.