TRUMP SURRENDERS TO THE MUTINEERS, ABANDONS TOTAL AUTHORITY SHIP

Donald Trump abandons fantasy that he has 'total' authority and says individual governors will decide on when to reopen economy - claiming some will get going BEFORE May 1 after Andrew Cuomo schooled him on the constitution

By Emily Goodin

Daily Mail
April 15, 2020

President Donald Trump on Tuesday abandoned his push for 'total' authority to reopen the country and said he would leave the decision in the hands of the individual governors of each state.

Facing angry governors and a violation of the U.S. Constitution, the president tried to spin his decision as one of graciousness, saying he would be 'authorizing' the governors to make their own decisions.

'I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly. And I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening, very powerful reopening plan of their estate in a time in a manner which is most appropriate,' Trump said at his daily White House press briefing.

He backed down from his threat to withhold aid from states who wouldn't fall in line and attempted to paint his relationship with the governors as strong and respectful.

'The governors will be very, very respectful of the presidency,' he noted. 'This isn't me. This is the presidency. The presidency has such a great importance in terms of what we are doing. You can talk about constitution. You can talk about federalism. You can talk about whatever you want. But the best way, I am talking now from a managerial standpoint, to let individual governors run individual states and come to us if they have difficulty and we will help them.'

He went on to praise the governors for their work after accusing them of mutiny when many of them - led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo - said they would decide what was best for their state, not the president.

'The governors are responsible, they have to take charge and do a great job,' he said, a remarkable change from his angry tone on Monday, when Trump proclaimed he alone has the authority to reopen the economy, which is suffering in the wake of the coronavirus.

'When somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total,' Trump said on Monday.

On Tuesday, after an outpouring of criticism and waving of the constitution, Trump said: 'The governors are going to be running their individual states.'

Constitutional scholars and governors disagreed with the president's assessment on Monday that the power rested with him to reopen the country. All pointed to the 10th amendment of the Constitution, which gives states precedent over the federal government.

Trump said some states could even reopen before May 1 - which is the date his '30 Days to Slow the Spread' of the coronavirus ends.

'The day must be close because certain states as you know are in much different condition. It's going to be very, very close. Maybe even before the date of May 1st,' he said.

'We have one country but we have lots of different pieces. It's a puzzle. We have beautiful pieces, beautiful states with capable governors. They know when it's time to open. We don't want to put pressure on anybody. I'm not going to put any pressure on any governor to open,' Trump said.

Tuesday's announcement was a surrender for the president, who also threatened to withhold coronavirus aid from states if the governors didn't heed his call to reopen the country.

And he charged the governors as guilty of mutiny.

'Tell the Democrat Governors that “Mutiny On The Bounty” was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!,' he tweeted.

Cuomo led the charge in blasting Trump for his pronouncement of authority - calling him 'schizophrenic' - and said he would take him to court over the matter as a constitutional crisis began to brew.

The governor claimed he didn't want to fight with the president - despite Trump 'spoiling' for one. Cuomo went on to make the point he didn't need to fight because the constitution was on the side of the states and not the federal government.

'The president is clearly spoiling for a fight on this issue,' Cuomo said at his daily press briefing in New York, referring to President Trump's mutiny tweet.

'Sometimes it takes more strength frankly to walk away from a fight than engage. The president will have no fight with me. I will not engage,' he said.

The governor also spent several minutes lecturing on how the constitution favors states, essentially arguing with Trump's point via a talk on early American history.

'This is basic federalism, the role of states and the role of the federal government. It is important to get this right. The founding fathers understood and I remembered today that the balance between the state and the federal, the magnificent balance articulated in the constitution is the essence of our democracy. We don't have a king in this country. We didn't want a king, so we have a constitution and we elect the president. The states, the colonies formed the federal government. The federal government did not form the states,' he said.

He went on to quote Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary who was one of the framers of the Constitution. Hamilton's Federalist Papers have been used by courts to determine the intentions of the founding fathers.

'Hamilton, who in many ways was representative of this discussion of the balance of power, state governments possess inherent advantages, and will forever preclude the possibility of federal encroachment on the states. The federal head is repugnant to every rule of political calculations. Strong language but that was a premise,' Cuomo said.

Cuomo added he was willing to talk to Trump at any time.

'I've always had an open line of communication with him. At different times in the past, when he hasn't been happy with me and I haven't been throwing bouquets to him, we've always communicated. I'm sure we will communicate now,' he said.

Trump took to Twitter after Cuomo went on the morning shows to slam the president's interpretation of the balance of power between the state and federal government.

'Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won’t happen!,' the president wrote.

The standoff began during a heated press conference inside the White House on Monday evening, when Trump claimed that his office holds 'absolute power' over the shutdowns prompted by the novel coronavirus outbreak - hours after Cuomo and eight other Democratic governors unveiled a pact to work together to co-ordinate the reopenings of their respective states.

'When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total,' Trump told reporters in response to the announcement, declining to specify where his authority to overrule states resides when pressed by DailyMail.com. Instead, he reiterated: 'The federal government has absolute power.

But Cuomo pointed out Trump left it up to the states to buy their own medical supplies and to issue stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus crisis, arguing the president can't accede that responsibility to the states and then contend he is an absolute authority.

'This is a 180. I have total authority. I'm going to tell the states what to do. So it makes no sense. It is schizophrenic,' Cuomo said Tuesday morning on CNN's 'New Day.'

The New York governor made it clear he would not obey any such order from Trump to reopen his state, adding he would take the matter to the courts to let them rule on it.

'If he ordered me to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn't do it. And we would have a constitutional challenge between the state and the federal government and that would go into the courts, and that would be the worst possible thing he could do at this moment would be to act dictatorial and to act in a partisan divisive way,' Cuomo said.

The governor warned Trump could create a 'constitutional crisis.'

'The only way this situation gets worse is if the president creates a constitutional crisis. If he says to me, I declare it open, and that is a public health risk or it's reckless with the welfare of the people of my state, I will oppose it. And then we will have a constitutional crisis like you haven't seen in decades,' Cuomo said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.'

'I just hope he gets control of what he was saying last night and he doesn't go down that road,' he added.

EDITOR'S NOTE: His declaration that he has total authority is another example of what Trump does often ... put his mouth in motion before he puts his brain in gear.