President Trump’s inaccurate assertion that he has ‘‘total’’ authority to reopen a nation shuttered by the coronavirus ignited a fresh challenge Tuesday from governors scrambling to manage their states, as the toll of death and severe illness continued to climb around the world.
The president’s claim, first conveyed in a tweet on Monday morning and underscored at a White House news conference and subsequent social media posts, caught some of his aides off guard and was dismissed by several legal experts.
In another assertion of authority Tuesday, Trump said he would halt funding to the World Health Organization while a review was conducted. He has criticized the organization for its slow response in the early days of the outbreak, but by Jan. 30, the organization had declared a global health emergency, after which the president continued to play down the outbreak and compared it with seasonal flu.
The president is also apparently seeking to put his imprint, quite literally, on a matter that could pay him political dividends. It was revealed late Tuesday that the Treasury Department has ordered Trump’s name be printed on the stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service is rushing to tens of millions of Americans.
The unprecedented decision is expected to slow the delivery of the checks by several days, senior agency officials said.
Trump’s various statements and the fresh power struggle between the federal government and state officials came as the toll of the pandemic continued to grow, with more than 25,000 people dead from the virus in the United States and more than 600,000 confirmed to be infected.
Trump has made it clear he would like to begin reopening the states by May, but most governors have left little doubt that they will make the decisions for their states. Several, including Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, have formed a coalition to coordinate their plans.
In an apparent reference to the governors’ assertion of independence, Trump invoked the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty’’ in a tweet Tuesday.
“A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain,” Trump tweeted, adding, “Too easy!”
Baker, asked if he felt he was part of a mutiny, said, “We’re a lot more interested in the work than we are in the noise. For Massachusetts to forge ahead here without presuming we’re going to have conversations with states that are around us . . . would just be a bad idea.”
At a White House briefing late Tuesday, Trump offered conflicting statements about which entity had the authority to reopen, seeming to backtrack from his claim Monday but at the same time insisting the federal government would have the final say.
‘‘The governors are responsible. They have to take charge,’’ said Trump, who added that some states want to reopen now and probably can before May 1, while others aren’t there yet. He said that if a state with many cases tries to reopen early, the federal government might step in.
‘‘If we disagree with it, we’re not going to let it open,’’ he said, before adding, ‘‘We’re there to help. But we’re also there to be critics.’’
Earlier in the day, Trump’s comments on reopening the nation were challenged by his presumptive Democratic rival this fall, former vice president Joe Biden, and also by prominent governors.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the president’s claim of total authority is ‘‘not an accurate statement,’’ because the basic principle of federalism is enshrined in the Constitution, in which powers not given to the federal government remain with the states.
“The president’s position is just absurd,” Cuomo said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.” “It’s not the law. It’s not the Constitution. We don’t have a king. We have a president.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that a team of government officials, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has created a public health strategy to combat the coronavirus and reopen parts of the country.
Their strategy is part of a larger White House effort to draft a national plan to get Americans out of their homes and back to work.
It gives guidance to state and local governments on how they can ease mitigation efforts, moving from drastic restrictions such as stay-at-home orders in a phased way to support a safe reopening.
Trump wants a final detailed plan on reopening the country ready within days so he can issue suggestions for some states to reopen May 1, officials said.
The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that the pandemic is causing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is also inflicting acute pain in the medical sector, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying Tuesday 9,000 health care workers have tested positive.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, was among the state leaders who made it clear Tuesday that the facts on the ground must dictate when the current restrictions can begin to ease.
‘‘This monster is still going to be with us at least until we get a vaccine,’’ DeWine said at a Tuesday news conference. ‘‘It’s not going away, and that’s the sad news. . . . We are 12-18 months away from this going away. We’re going to have to live with it.’’
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, outlined six factors he will consider in reopening his state, including protecting communities from the spread of the virus and ensuring that hospitals could handle any new surge in cases.
Two White House officials said there was no broader planning for Trump’s comments that he had ‘‘total’’ authority. There was no legal underpinning for the remarks in advance, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly, and ‘‘it is widely viewed with skepticism in the building that we should be doing this.’’
The White House Counsel’s Office is studying what authority the president actually does have during a national emergency, according to the officials. But the operating plan in the White House is not to try to force any state to reopen, although one senior White House official said they had been in contact with some states — such as Texas, Mississippi, and Tennessee — about reopening sooner rather than later.
‘‘I am almost positive James Madison fell off a cloud somewhere today when Trump said that,’’ said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor.
‘‘The founders of the republic stitched together a complicated game of chess to ensure our president was a very weak king who could be simultaneously slowed down by the legislature, judiciary, and federalism,’’ he said. “His authority is far from total.’’
Material from David Abel of the Globe staff and the Associated Press was used in this report.