Jen Psaki opened her show by mocking Donald Trump and delivering a civics lecture that painted her as what she’s always been—a defender of Big Government, Democrats, the Federal Reserve, and the entrenched bureaucracy that too often works against the American people. That should come as no surprise—she has been a Democratic operative since 2001, starting her career working for Democratic campaigns and politicians, later serving as communications director for Barack Obama and as Joe Biden’s press secretary. Now in her MSNBC role, she continues the same partisan work on air, not as an honest analyst but as a loyal party hack.
Here’s Psaki in her own words:
“So everyone knows, everyone watching all know the president of the United States is the head of the executive branch of government, obviously. And that means no matter who this person is, they have a lot of power.”
Of course the president is head of the executive branch—that’s Civics 101. Psaki starts with the obvious in order to sound authoritative, but it’s a setup for the spin that follows.
“Even that Yahoo, who you can see behind my shoulder, but presidents are not all powerful. That’s one thing that we need to be very clear about, and keep stating. They cannot just do whatever the heck they want.”
Psaki sets the tone with an insult—calling Trump a “yahoo,” defined as a rude, noisy, or violent person—and flashing an unflattering photo of him on screen. That isn’t serious commentary; it’s cheap mockery for her partisan audience.
“And that’s one of the reasons why there are a bunch of important jobs throughout the federal government that are designed as independent from the White House and from the president whoever is the president. Jobs where people remain in the roles through administrations of both parties. Some of these jobs have 10 year terms, 12 year terms, 14 year terms. Jobs where new presidents are not allowed to come in and just start firing people.”
Yes, some officials have long, fixed terms—but that doesn’t mean they are untouchable. Those terms are sold as “independent” and “non-partisan,” but in practice they allow unelected bureaucrats to resist the agenda of a newly elected president and what the people voted for. Independence has been stretched into unaccountability. Article II gives presidents removal power as the baseline, and the Supreme Court has affirmed it again and again.
“As we’ve seen, Trump has been on a bit of a total rampage since taking office, firing as many of those independent voices as he can possibly get away with.”
Calling it a “rampage” is just rhetoric. Trump’s removals were challenged, but the Supreme Court allowed them to stand while the cases move forward. That means Psaki’s claim he was “not allowed” is misleading at best.
“Now there may be people or jobs that most people haven’t heard of, but they are still very important. They’re playing very important roles in the government.”
She continued naming officials Trump fired—several of them Democrats—and insisted he was not allowed to fire any of them under the law.
But under Article II, the president holds constitutional removal authority as the baseline, and no role is absolutely beyond the law or beyond removal.
She also attacked the Supreme Court itself, sneering that:
“the court’s conservative majority was all too eager to validate Donald Trump’s reckless actions.”
The Court wasn’t “eager”—it applied nearly a century of precedent affirming Article II authority. And Psaki’s framing is misleading in another way: not every justice who rules for a position associated with Trump can be neatly boxed in as “conservative.” Not being a far-left Democrat does not automatically make a justice a conservative partisan. Psaki reduced a constitutional decision to partisan loyalty, misinforming viewers about both the Court’s reasoning and its makeup.
Finally, Psaki claimed even those “very conservative” justices carved out exceptions, saying there are some jobs presidents should never be able to touch—most notably, the Federal Reserve. As she put it:
“Specifically, they said the president should not be able to arbitraily fire members of the Federal Reserve, because, as they said, the Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured institution with a distinct historical tradition of independence.”
That’s the real tell. Psaki isn’t just defending career bureaucrats or Democrats embedded in government—she’s defending the most powerful unelected institution of all: the Federal Reserve. For more than a century, the Fed has operated outside the control of voters, manipulating the economy, inflating the currency, and shielding itself behind the word “independence.”
If that’s Psaki’s model for good government, then it’s proof of the problem. Independence without accountability isn’t democracy—it’s tyranny by bureaucracy. End the Fed.