Answers will come, eventually. But not on Thursday.

Mr. Cuomo prioritized speed and construction, not parliamentary rules of procedure. He has long argued that government was more about building than talking and debating.

Besides, Mr. Cuomo has said, he does not control the M.T.A., which operates the subways. But there he was, controlling it, while denying that was what he was doing.

Obvious contradictions, zigging while your administration is zagging, all with a showman’s timing. Did that sound familiar?

Mr. Cuomo, who says he has no interest in running for president, delivered the train news on Thursday afternoon, around the time members of Congress were being sworn in.

Local news carried Mr. Cuomo’s news conference live.

Coincidence? On New Year’s Day, he was inaugurated on Ellis Island, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. On Wednesday, he was greeted with a Daily News front page describing him as “presidential-sounding.”

One critic of the new L train plan said Mr. Cuomo did, in a way, seem presidential. The governor, @2AvSagas wrote on Twitter, “sounds like Trump now.”

More on the L train plan

• What this abrupt U-turn means for Brooklynites, East Villagers and the rest of the city.

• How engineers hope to use new technology to replace cables and fix the L train tunnel.