(CNN)With 23,000 Americans dead and millions without a paycheck, President Donald Trump dimmed the lights in the White House briefing room, fired up a misleading propaganda video and boiled over.
In one of the most unchained presidential tantrums ever captured on television, Trump's Monday display flouted every notion of calm leadership by the commander in chief in a crisis.
He claimed powers never envisioned by the Constitution and insisted his "authority is total" to order states and cities to get moving again to break out of the frozen economy. His warning came as two blocs of Eastern and Western hot-spot states banded together in an implied challenge to his vow to get people back to work soon, setting off a brewing confrontation over the power of the federal government.
During the news conference, Trump moaned that the press was not giving him credit because "everything we did was right" in the coronavirus pandemic.
Raging at reporters, the President used the campaign-style video to mislead the nation about his sluggish recognition of the threat from the virus, after once predicting a "miracle" that would make it go away. He called up his top medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, to publicly repudiate his own words Sunday on CNN, which had been interpreted as criticism of early administration actions.
When the Category Five presidential storm had blown out, Trump had offered no new guidance on the key issues -- for instance, the continued inadequacy of testing, which will hamper the nation's economic opening. He vowed that the economy would fire up "ahead of schedule" but did not explain how, when many states are at or are approaching their peak infection rates. And he appeared to warn he would try to force open state economies, including shops, schools and restaurants closed by governors and mayors. He did not explain, either, how he would convince the public to get back to normal if people did not feel confident they were safe.
"The President of the United States calls the shots," Trump said.
But after the briefing, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he disagreed with Trump's interpretation of his powers, stating that the President is not a monarch.
"We don't have a king. We have an elected president," Cuomo said during an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett. "The Constitution clearly says the powers that are not specifically listed for the federal government are reserved for the states, and the bounds between federal and state authority are central to the Constitution -- one of the great balances of power."
The Founding Fathers "didn't want a king, otherwise we would have had King George Washington," Cuomo added.
Trump's anger erupted at a time when there are encouraging signs that the virus may be reaching its apex in some hot spots, such as New York -- despite a continuing terrible death toll. More than 23,000 Americans have now died and there are more than 580,000 confirmed infections.
But there are worrying indications of the virus spreading among workers vital to the food chain in meat-processing plants in South Dakota and Colorado and in supermarkets that suggest normal life is nowhere near resuming. And a crew member died from Covid-19 after serving on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the nuclear aircraft carrier that had its captain fired for warning that the disease was ravaging his command.
Shortly before the briefing, two groups of states on each coast encompassing millions of people banded together to study when and how to ease social-distancing restrictions in a way that does not lead to a resurgence of the virus.
Many local officials have warned that far more diagnostic and antibody testing -- on the order of millions per day -- is needed so that states can safely relax distancing precautions and isolate those who are infected.
The President's remarks raised the prospect of a massive constitutional confrontation with governors if he sticks to his position ahead of his hoped-for May 1 opening date.
And they threatened to carve the nation deeper on partisan lines between mostly Democratic-run states that have been heavily hit by the virus and GOP governors who want to please Trump politically.
Trump's performance was a product of a weekend fuming at news coverage, including a New York Times report based on emails by officials that suggested he had waited weeks to recognize the threat of the virus and did not act quickly enough.
The report is supplemented by numerous public remarks by Trump early this year in which he predicted the virus would fizzle out in the US.
It was the latest indication of how, even in a pandemic, Trump's primary concern is his own image. And it hinted that he believes the final verdict on how his administration handled the outbreak could be the key issue in November's presidential election.
The irony was that the President's tirade overshadowed some good news on the crisis, albeit at a tragic time. There are signs that the murderous rates of infection and death in hot spots such as New York and elsewhere are stabilizing. The President's top medical lieutenants, Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, sat grim-faced in the briefing room for more than an hour while his temper raged.
But while Trump's behavior was alarming, it is also certain to cement the divides opened by his presidency. His conservative media boosters were jubilant in their early reviews, judging that he had torched his media questioners.
The lesson of every previous Trump outburst and controversy is that his supporters are far more likely to believe his version of events than media fact checks and that the President may see some of his intended effect -- causing confusion and controversy that obscures the true story of the federal response.