Donald Trump has violated court orders a thousand times.
Posted by The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Checked
- Sources
- 3 contradict2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 45%
The Briefing with Jen PsakiSep 24, 2026
The claim is a rhetorical figure from a guest's remarks ('we've seen him do it a thousand times'), and sources do not count violations to a thousand: AP counts 31 lawsuits plus more than 250 immigration noncompliance instances, and Just Security lists 60 cases.
What was said
… We have a right, we have a right to access to those grounds and to hold his feet to the fire, and we have to, to your point, be thinking about him violating court orders because we've seen him do it a thousand times. Yeah, you know, when your White House access was first reinstated back in 2018, you talked about how you were confident that would happen because you were confident in our system of justice in this country. …
The Briefing with Jen Psaki · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. No source puts the total number of violations near a thousand; the documented counts cited in coverage are a few hundred at most, so the literal figure is not supported by any count.[1][2][3]
Context. The AP review found district judges ruled the administration violated an order in at least 31 lawsuits since February 2025, plus more than 250 instances of noncompliance in individual immigration petitions.[1][2]
Context. A Just Security study lists federal court findings of Trump administration noncompliance in 60 cases, and a chief federal judge in Minnesota counted more than 200 ICE violations of court orders.[3][4]
Context. The 'thousand times' phrasing is a loose rhetorical figure in a political interview, and the statement attributes the violations to Trump personally while sources mostly describe administration-wide noncompliance.[5]
Sources
5 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 tier 2, 3 not rated
- 1Takeaways from AP report on Trump's defiance of court ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, context
- 2Trump flexes executive power with unprecedented flouting ...washingtonpost.com · tier 2 · cited for: contradicts, context
- 3Study Lists 60 Trump Administration Cases Involving Court-Order Breaches | EconoTimeseconotimes.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts, context
- 4Constitutional Collision Coursejustsecurity.org · not rated · cited for: context
- 5Trump skirts court commands as distrust between branches spiralsstaradvertiser.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post