In this weekly column "Cross Exam," Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor, gives his take on the latest legal news. Post your questions below. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN. Watch Honig answer readers' questions on "CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera" at 5:40 p.m. ET Sundays.

(CNN) During his Friday press conference on the federal government's response to the coronavirus, President Donald Trump referred to a decision about when to reopen the country as "the biggest decision I'll ever make." Staying at home, he said, "if you look at numbers, that leads to a different kind of death perhaps. But it leads to death also. So it's a very big decision."

But Trump seems to misstate — and overstate — his power as president. In fact, many key decisions about when to resume life as normal are not Trump's to make.

Elie Honig

To be sure, the president has vast powers in an emergency like the coronavirus crisis. He can, through the Department of Health and Human Services, impose measures reasonably necessary "to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the States" or between states. He can declare a national emergency.

He controls billions of dollars in federal funding, which he can distribute to assist state and local response efforts. He can open or close the executive branch of government — federal agencies, national parks, the military. And he can issue voluntary or recommended guidelines, which do not carry legal force but are broadly persuasive and important.

While the president has vast and grave responsibility for leading the nation's coronavirus response, he cannot, on his own, simply reopen the country with a wave of his hand. Many of the key decisions affecting the everyday lives of Americans lie with state and local officials. In fact, it has been governors and mayors who have issued the stay-at-home orders while the president's task force has issued guidelines that aren't mandatory.