"When somebody is President of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way it's got to be ... The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I'll use that power, we'll see." I'm sure, I don't need to say who's speaking there, but suffice it to say it was in the context of who should be responsible for the decision to reopen the American economy, and how.
Of course, like most things that come out of Trump's mouth, it's not actually true - the Constitution, and the 10th Amendment in particular, says otherwise. Louis XIV may have claimed absolute power (and look what happened to him....), as did the Russian tsars and the Ottoman sultans. Trump, however, is not in a position to do so. In this particular case, the various states called for social distancing rules and lock-downs, and the states will relax them as they see fit. Several states are banding together in unofficial groupings as they discuss the best way to gradually open up after weeks of lock-down, and they have made it very they are not going to be unduly worried by the ravings of a power-mad president.
I think this particular outburst of Trumpian chutzpah and hubris came during yesterday's daily press briefing. This happens to be the only one of rump's "briefings" - widely panned as barefaced rally-style election campaigning as well as non-factual drivel that should be dropped from live broadcasting - that I happened to watch live. Unfortunately, I didn't get as far as this particular segment. I lasted about five minutes before my blood pressure rose so far that I just had to leave the room. I have no idea how the press and his political opponents (or his supporters, for that matter) cope with him, and still manage to maintain, more or less, civility and equanimity. But then, I guess that's why I'm not in politics.
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