The Tenth Amendment

During his near daily "press briefing" on Monday, which is actually an attempt to use the White House as a stage set for a reelection rally, Donald Trump made a number of surreal, incorrect, and unconstitutional assertions like "when somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total."

He also said "The President of the United States calls the shots. [States and governors] can't do anything without the approval of the President of the United States."

He also claimed there were "numerous provisions" in the Constitution granting him such fiat authority, but of course he didn't name what they were.

That's because they don't exist.

Indeed, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution specifically reserves certain powers to the states and neither Trump nor anyone else in the federal government has a right to overrule the states (details here and here).

Trump was claiming that he has the power to force governors to "reopen" their states, to order businesses to reopen, for schools to begin again, and on and on. In fact, he has no such powers.

The most disturbing thing about this incident is that it once again underscores how profoundly ignorant Trump is about the American Constitution. You'd think after more than three years as President he'd finally have read the damn thing, but it's obvious he almost certainly hasn't.