CORONAVIRUS/COVID-19/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: [Reporter: There’s a debate over what authority you have to order the country reopened. What authority do you have?] “When somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be…
We will soon finalize new and very important guidelines to give governors the information they need to start safely opening their states. My administration’s plan and corresponding guidelines will give the American people the confidence they need to begin returning to normal life. That’s what we want. We want to have our country open. We want to return to normal life… You asked, ‘Does the federal government have the power?’ The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I’ll use that power, we’ll see.”
-Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Apr. 14, 2020