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President Trump on Monday backed off his claim of “total” authority about when states get to lift coronavirus restrictions — and pushed back against Andrew Cuomo’s snark likening him to a “king.”

The New York governor had declared that “we don’t have a king, we have a president,” in response to Trump’s statements on Monday that he had the power to say when states would reopen their economies.

Asked about Cuomo’s remarks on Tuesday, Trump joked, “Yeah, I declared myself king.”

“I heard he said that,” Trump said during a White House coronavirus briefing, adding that Cuomo “understands how we helped him.”

“We gave him 2,900 hospital beds, we gave him a ship, he didn’t use them,” Trump continued, referring to the Navy-built hospital at the Javits Center and the USNS Comfort.

“That’s good because that means he did not need them,” Trump said, adding that he and Cuomo “get along just fine.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump had likened governors, including Cuomo, to “mutineers” for pushing back at his claim that relaxing restrictions would be up to the federal government, not states.

But just hours later, the president acknowledged that he would work with the states on reopening the nation.

“I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly, and I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening,” Trump said at the briefing, adding that it would be “at a time and in a manner as most appropriate” for each state.

“The day will be very close,” he said, indicating that some states without major outbreaks may be able to reopen by May 1.

“The governors are going to come out at a time when they’re ready,” he said. “Some can come out very, very shortly. And we look forward to watching that process. I think it’s going to be a very beautiful process.”