The state of Trump's view — as of yesterday — that his "authority is total."

As I've said, I think Trump's rhetoric is a device to shift responsibility over to the governors and to facilitate a patchwork, decentralized reopening of the economy. The claim that the President's "authority is total" was made at the April 13th press briefing, so now I want to look at  the April 14th Task Force Press briefing and see what — if anything — may have changed after a day of knocking him around for what was widely perceived as an outrageous power grab:

Donald Trump: The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized and we will soon be sharing details and new guidelines with everybody. 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 and a very powerful reopening plan of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate.

By saying he will be "authorizing" the governors to take over the decision-making and implementation of the reopening, he's not stepping back from the claim of power. In that formulation, he has the power, but he's going to delegate it to the Governors.

The day will be very close because certain states, as you know, are in much different condition and in a much different place than other states.

Power could be exercised top-down with one uniform get-back-to-work order, but because of different conditions in different places, the decentralized approach is better. That's the decision he's telling us he's already made. That's the weak version of federalism we see in all sorts of regulation in the United States. The feds can take over where they choose, but they can leave things to state and local government where they want.

It’s going to be very, very close, maybe even before the date of May 1st. So that will be for some states. Actually, there are over 20 that are in extremely good shape and we think we’re going to be able to get them open fairly quickly and then others will follow.

This underscores the idea that a decentralized approach is good. He anticipates that over 20 states will be able to open up in the next couple weeks, and the implication is that about half the states have a more serious problem to get under control and their Governors are going to be challenged to hold the line and keep their people out of work while other places are ramping up.

The federal government will be watching them very closely and we’ll be there to help. We’ll be there to help in many different ways as we’ve been where we built hospital beds.... We will hold the governors accountable. But again, we’re going to be working with them to make sure it works really well....

He's repeating the idea that the federal government has a backup role in the care and treatment of the sick. The Governors are on the front line, but the federal government will help them.

The governors are going to be opening up their states. They’re going to declare when. They’re going to know when. Some can open very, very shortly, if not almost immediately. We’ll give a date, but the date’s going to be in the very near future, so we’ll get it open. Individual states when the governors will be held accountable....

More repetition of the idea, in case you haven't absorbed it yet.

The governors are responsible. They have to take charge. They have to do a great job and we’re going to suggest that they check people through tests or otherwise coming into their states and they run their states very strong. Eventually we won’t have to do that. Eventually this will be gone, but for a while we’re going to do it. They’re going to take charge at their borders. They’re going to take charge of people coming in, and maybe to an extent, depending on what they work out with a nearby state, it may be also people leaving....

More repetition, plus the introduction of the idea that each state is confined by its borders, and something will need to be done to restrict the comings and goings from state to state. This is the old problem of how to have decentralized regulation of what's in a state when there is interstate commerce and travel and the states all affect each other. That problem has always been an argument for federal power — whether that federal power is exercised or not.

We think that some of the governors [will] be in really good shape to open up even sooner than that. We’ll speak to them, but we’re all set. We’re counting on the governors to do a great job. Others are going to have to take a longer period of time until they’re in a position to say we’re ready to go. And that’s okay. We understand that. Some of the governors have a very tough situation, but in almost all cases it’s all starting to come down....

The man is a master of repetition. The idea is hammered into our head.

The governors have learned a lot. I’ve spoken to governors that at the beginning it was a contentious relationship and now it’s a very friendly relationship and a really great relationship. I’m proud to say that some of them I think are friends.

He loves to praise other people as great and to call them friends. Whether they really are or not is another matter. I think he's saying it because he's looking toward the future, and he thinks it's a way to create cooperation and success.

In some cases they’re Democrats, but I think they like me and I actually like them.

I think they like me! Isn't that funny? Maybe off stage they do get along, and what we're seeing is political theater ("an exciting and invigorating thing to watch").

I’ll tell you who they are someday.

Ha ha. He can't name them perhaps because they don't exist but probably because it wouldn't help them get things done. Liking Trump is no way for a Democrat to further his career. They must hate. On stage.

But we’re all getting along and we all want to do the right thing and I think they’re going to do a great job of leading their individual states. It’ll be a beautiful thing to watch. They’ll go and rely on their mayors and their local town officials.... I think it’s going to be a terrific system and if we’re unhappy with the state, we’re going to let them know we’re unhappy and if they’re not doing the job and they can’t get the job done. And for some reason things are happening that we’re not going to like, like the numbers are heading in a wrong direction, we’ll have to do something that’s very serious.

Again, the federal government is a backup — a safety net. It can't successfully run everything. It should insist on state and local responsibility, and then it should watch and ensure that the duties are carried out well enough and be ready to step in if things go too wrong.

We’ll have to maybe close them up and start all over again, but I don’t think we’re going to have to do that. I think the governors are going to come out at a time that … And these will be individual dates and the governors are going to come out at a time when they’re ready. Some can come out very, very shortly and we look forward to watching that process. I think it’s going to be a very beautiful process. Our discussions will focus with the people that we’re dealing with on rejuvenating the economy and always health, always health. Health and life. Living is number one, but the rejuvenated economy and I think it’s going to go quickly. We’ll be utilizing our robust testing capacity for the governors. We’ll be giving them what they need if they don’t have it themselves. We hope by now there’ll be able to have it themselves....

More repetition. I like the phrase "a very beautiful process" — "we look forward to watching that process" because it will be beautiful. He's always trying to cheer us up. It's quite touching. It's sad that he so often gets anger and rejection when he's oriented to beauty. And to life: "Living is #1." Yeah, that is true.

Speaker 6 asks what Trump will do if the Governors "don’t listen to you or take your advice or obey you." And: "Will you consider taking away their federal funding?" Notice, that really is the source of federal power over the health and welfare of the people of the state — federal funding. If Trump really wants to exercise something like "total authority," then the money is the tool. But Trump slips out of that trap, and he does it exactly as you should expect:

I don’t want to say that. They’ll listen. They’ll be fine. I think we’re going to have a good relationship. They need the federal government not only for funding, and I’m not saying take it away, but they need it for advice. They’ll need maybe equipment that we have... Now, the governor’s will be very, very respectful of the presidency. Again, this isn’t me, this is the presidency. The presidency has such a great importance in terms of what we’re doing. And you can talk about Constitution, you can talk about federalism, you can talk about whatever you want, but the best way — I’m talking now from a managerial standpoint — is to let individual governors run individual states and come to us if they have difficulty and we will help them....

He's not stressing the interpretation of the Constitution. He's oriented toward doing what works — the "managerial standpoint."

And, really, an awful lot of scholarly constitutional interpretation is about workable government. As an old lawprof myself, I feel compelled to quote Justice Jackson: "The actual art of governing under our Constitution does not and cannot conform to judicial definitions of the power of any of its branches based on isolated clauses or even single Articles torn from context. While the Constitution diffuses power the better to secure liberty, it also contemplates that practice will integrate the dispersed powers into a workable government." Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U. S. 579, 343 U. S. 635 (1952).

Back to the transcript of the press briefing:

The governors are going to be running their individual states some of them will say, no, I can’t open now and some of them may last longer than we even would think. Others will say, I can, you can go. I don’t want to mention states, but there are numerous states that are in great shape right now. They are viewing the rest of the country like, we don’t even believe this is happening. We have a lot of those states... If some governor has a lot of problems, a lot of cases, a lot of death, and they want to open early, we’re not going to let it happen. So we’re there to watch. We’re there to help. But we’re also there to be critics....

Repetition — repetition of repetition. There can be no doubt about what he is saying: States on the frontline of responsibility; feds doing the backup.

It’s a puzzle. We have beautiful pieces, beautiful states with capable governors.

There's that word "beautiful" again.

They know when it’s time to open and we don’t want to put pressure on anybody. I’m not going to put any pressure on any governor to open. I’m not going to say to Governor Cuomo, you got to open within seven days. I want him to take his time, do it right, and then open New York. I’m not putting any pressure on the governors. Some of them don’t need pressure or not pressure. I mean, they’re ready to go. And that’s a good thing. So we’ll open it up in beautiful little pieces as it comes along. 

Notice that he's not going to pressure any Governor to open things up, but he did say — if you scroll up a little — "If some governor has a lot of problems, a lot of cases, a lot of death, and they want to open early, we’re not going to let it happen." So it's okay to drag out the reopening. No pressure there. But if a Governor is too eager to open, there will be pressure — indeed, there will be control: "We’re not going to let it happen." The place where Trump is threatening to use that "total authority" is where a Governor, given responsibility, tries to open it up too soon.

Now, the next question Trump gets is whether he has "any thoughts on" Governor Cuomo's "remarks from earlier today where he basically said that, were New York to be pressured to be open, it would cause a constitutional crisis. And he basically said that you declared yourself King Trump."

Trump answers (with the first sentence in a sarcastic tone):

Yeah, I’ve declared myself as King. You know, I heard he said that, but I didn’t see the remarks. But he understands how we helped him.... We’ll get along just fine, he understands. We’ll get along just fine. Please....

To that I would add that Trump was just clear that he was going to let Cuomo "take his time, do it right, and then open New York," and he "not going to put any pressure on any governor to open." The "constitutional crisis" won't happen, because — despite some of the posturing — the 2 men are not in disagreement and there is no real conflict between them.

Trump is asked "What’s your assurance to workers who are asked to go back to work but are fearful of doing so?" And Trump's answer shows the political benefit his position gives him:

Well, that’s going to be up to the governors. The governors are going to want to make sure everything’s safe...

At the very end, he sums up:

We’re going to work with the governors, the governors are going to do a good job. And if they don’t do a good job, we’re going to come down on them very hard. We’ll have no other choice.