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After all the excitement, Donald Trump was condescending: “I will speak to each of the 50 governors and authorize each and every governor to open the economy again,” he said.
That suddenly sounded very generous. However, the governors believe they do not need the permission of the president. It was a new phase in a bizarre dispute that has erupted in the United States over who can lift the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus.
How could it be otherwise, Trump broke it himself, he has a clear vision of what he is allowed to do, that is, of everything. “When someone is the president of the United States, his power is all-encompassing. And so it should be. All-encompassing,” he said Monday at one of his notorious Corona briefings at the White House.
Who decides on the return to normality?
Consequently, it is only the president who decides whether the stores will reopen and whether people will be allowed to go outside.
From this point of view, the governors are only executive bodies of the Almighty in Washington. “Nothing can be done without the approval of the president,” Trump said.
More about the subject
Governors naturally see it differently. “We have a constitution, we don’t have a king,” said Andrew Cuomo, a New York incumbent Democrat. Prominent Republicans also have trouble with their president’s legal opinion: “I see the constitution differently,” said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.
There are hardly any legal experts who share Trump’s opinion. It’s not just liberal lawyers who are skeptical. “The president has no power to order states to open their economies if they believe this will harm the public good,” said law professor Jonathan Turley of the New York Times. Turley had pleaded against Trump’s impeachment in the impeachment proceedings.
Trump has to do with reelection
However, Trump should not worry about legal niceties. He has acted throughout the crown crisis as if the only issue he cared about was how he could secure his reelection in November.
This may also be an obvious contradiction: Trump insists on presidential power. In the current situation, however, I was very hesitant to use them.
There are recommendations from the White House on what to do in times of crisis. Concrete orders came from the governors.
Trump has decided not to be responsible for store closings and curfews. Negative decisions must be made by others.
The president, on the other hand, has repeatedly made it clear that he would like to return to normal faster than his experts and those responsible for the most affected countries such as New York, Washington or California think it is correct.
It is no coincidence that Trump is starting an unnecessary dispute right now. This is not a good time for the President right now.
“New York Times” and “Washington Post” have documented in detail what Trump has failed in the crisis. Its chief epidemiologist, Anthony Fauci, admitted that the government could have saved lives if it had acted earlier. And the president’s approval ratings are also falling.
In the end it will be the same as always.
A group of governors has also come together to coordinate the way forward in the crisis. In the end, that was the trigger for Trump’s statements. It left states to decide on tough measures against the virus. But a return to normality should connect citizens to the president.
Still, one wonders why Trump even bothers to fight. In the end, it will be the same as always: if the opening comes too soon and the number of infected people increases again, he will blame the governors. If all goes well, you will be praised for your policy.
The central question of this presidency is not what Trump is legally authorized to do. The question is, what will he get away with? In the end, it will not be the courts that will decide, but the voters.
