In one of the most surreal moments of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump stood before the nation on April 13, 2020, and declared:

“When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total.”

It wasn’t.

Trump’s announcement came as governors across the country were independently issuing lockdowns, closing businesses, and making public health decisions without waiting for federal orders. As infections spread and the economy tanked, Trump desperately wanted to control the narrative—and apparently, the states. But both the Constitution and the governors themselves had other ideas (Shear, 2020).

The Constitution Has Entered the Chat

Within minutes, constitutional scholars were setting the record straight. The Tenth Amendment is crystal clear: powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved for the states. That includes decisions about public health measures like quarantines and business closures (Chemerinsky, 2020).

Trump’s claim of “total authority” had, in the words of legal expert Erwin Chemerinsky, “no basis whatsoever” in American law (Chemerinsky, 2020).

It wasn’t just law professors pushing back. Governors across the political spectrum shot down Trump’s power grab. New York’s Andrew Cuomo didn’t mince words:

“We don’t have a king. We have a president.” (Fadel, 2020)

Republican leaders like Maryland’s Larry Hogan, chair of the National Governors Association, also refused to yield. Governors would make reopening decisions based on the needs of their own people—not at the whims of Washington (Fadel, 2020).

Trump’s Retreat and the Mess That Followed

Faced with this bipartisan resistance, Trump didn’t press the point. Instead, the White House drifted into a muddled, chaotic strategy: vague national guidelines paired with attacks on governors who didn’t fall in line. States like Florida, under Governor Ron DeSantis, raced to reopen early, while others like California’s Gavin Newsom moved cautiously, often clashing with Trump publicly (Bosman & Smith, 2020).

Meanwhile, Trump himself veered into increasingly bizarre territory: hyping unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine, and at one point, suggesting people might inject disinfectant to kill the virus (Soucheray, 2020).

Behind the scenes, even Trump’s own team admitted that states were on their own. Jared Kushner reportedly said the federal government’s role was simply “a backup” (Soucheray, 2020). Supplies like ventilators and PPE became a desperate free-for-all, with states sometimes bidding against each other—and even against FEMA—to protect their residents (Bosman & Smith, 2020).

Public Opinion: Trust the Governors

As 2020 dragged on, it was clear that the American people weren’t buying Trump’s self-proclaimed “total authority.”
Polls showed that Americans trusted their state and local governments far more than the federal government to handle the pandemic (Pew Research Center, 2020). Trump’s flailing response became a major liability for his reelection campaign.

By November, Joe Biden’s team had effectively weaponized Trump’s COVID failures against him. Trump’s bluster couldn’t mask the devastating toll: hundreds of thousands dead, tens of millions unemployed, a country in chaos.

The Reality Check

In the end, Trump’s “total authority” amounted to little more than a soundbite—a typical Trumpian mixture of bravado and wishful thinking, totally divorced from constitutional law, public health reality, and the basic principles of American governance.

The pandemic revealed just how much real authority lies at the state and local level during a national crisis. It also revealed the limits of a presidency built on spectacle rather than substance.

When Americans needed leadership most, what they got instead was a president declaring powers he didn’t have, making promises he couldn’t keep, and blaming others when it all fell apart.

References
Bosman, J., & Smith, M. (2020, April 13). Governors Signal Defiance After Trump Says He Has ‘Total’ Authority. The New York Times.
Chemerinsky, E. (2020, April 14). Trump’s claim of total authority is nonsense. Los Angeles Times.
Fadel, L. (2020, April 14). ‘We Don’t Have A King’: Governors Push Back Against Trump’s Authority Claim. NPR.
Pew Research Center. (2020, July 22). Most Americans continue to say state and local governments are handling the coronavirus outbreak better than the federal government.
Shear, M. D. (2020, April 13). Trump Claims He Has ‘Total’ Authority Over States. The New York Times.
Soucheray, S. (2020, April 30). Feds say states responsible for COVID response. Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.