So. Trump said "When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total."

This is antithetical to everything conservatives have argued for 50 years. 1/

POTUS cannot take away your free speech or your 2nd amendment rights. He doesn& #39;t have the authority to tell you to stay home or leave home. He doesn& #39;t have authority to tell states to tell you to either -- and if he managed it, it would require Congressional authorization. 2/

The Trump praetorians will circle around to the fact that Trump ultimately said something about a "situation like this." Okay. The president still doesn& #39;t have the authority to close restaurants, schools or Churches OR OPEN THEM. He doesn& #39;t have those police powers. 3/

And if any conservative -- including Mike Pence who& #39;s dancing as I type this -- says POTUS has anything like those powers they are violating vast swaths of what conservatives claimed to believe before Trump became president. 4/