Donald Trump claims he has ‘total’ power to lift US coronavirus lockdown
Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday
Donald Trump has claimed he has “total” power to lift the nationwide coronavirus lockdown in the US despite state governors planning their own reopenings.
Legal experts said the president’s power on the issue is limited under the US Constitution.
But pressed on the question of whether governors or federal government would make the decision to re-open schools and businesses, the US leader insisted he had ultimate authority.
“The president of the United States calls the shots,” Mr Trump told a White House briefing on Monday evening.
He added: ”That being said, we’re going to work with the states.”
The death toll in the US from Covid-19 topped 23,000 on Monday, out of more than 575,000 known US infections.
The US, with the world’s third-largest population by country, has recorded more fatalities from coronavirus than any other nation.
Mr Trump said he had unilateral authority for ending the lockdowns that have strangled the US economy, throwing at least 17 millions Americans out of work in just three weeks.
He did not offer specifics about his claim of authority over the states or any details of his plan to reopen the economy.
Political leaders said a reopening of the economy may hinge on more widespread testing to better determine the full extent of infections.
I want to reopen US economy with a ‘big bang’, Donald Trump says
They cautioned that lifting stay-at-home orders prematurely could reignite the outbreak.
But seven Northeastern US states and the three West Coast states banded together on Monday in regional pacts to forge coordinated, gradual economic reopenings.
There has been announcements from the New York-led group of East Coast governors, and a similar compact formed by California, Oregon and Washington state.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was teaming up with his counterparts in adjacent New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island to devise the best strategies for easing stay-at-home orders imposed last month to curb coronavirus transmissions.
Massachusetts later announced it was joining the East Coast coalition.
“Nobody has been here before, nobody has all the answers,” said Mr Cuomo, whose state has become the US epicentre of the coronavirus, during an open conference call with five other governors.
“Addressing public health and the economy: Which one is first? They’re both first.”
Source:standard.co.uk/news