In an ongoing battle of words between the the executive branch and governors regarding coronavirus testing, President Donald Trump called out Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican who has consistently questioned the White House’s truthfulness about the availability of tests.

The flare-up began shortly after the Maryland governor announced that he and First Lady Yumi Hogan had secured 500,000 coronavirus test kits from South Korea. Hogan, who also serves as the chair of the National Governors Association, said that the Trump administration “made it clear over and over again they want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Trump said that Hogan didn’t “really understand what was going on” at Monday’s White House press briefing. According to Trump, Vice President Mike Pence had spoken with governors earlier on Monday regarding testing, and provided all governors with a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of labs with additional testing capacities in each state.

Trump later contended in the briefing that Hogan “could have saved a lot of money” if he had relied on the federal government’s testing measures instead of turning to South Korea. That statement stood in opposition to Trump’s tweets hours earlier, which pinned the primary testing responsibility on the states.  

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252260074782887941

Hogan appeared on CNN moments after Trump’s comments to rebut them. “I have a pretty good understanding of what’s going on,” he said, adding that many of the governors were already aware of the list of federal lab facilities in their states. As of April 21, Maryland has tested 73,000 people, and reported 584 deaths.

As a moderate member of Trump’s party and a leader in the governor’s association, Hogan has been outspoken about the shortcomings he sees in the federal government’s coronavirus response. In an earlier CNN appearance over the weekend, Hogan says it was “absolutely false” for Trump to suggest that the country’s testing capacity had reached a sufficient level to consider reopening the economy.

Despite saying that “he did not want to get into criticizing back in forth” during his Monday night CNN appearance, Hogan went on to later make a pointed “thank you” to the president on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/GovLarryHogan/status/1252404969669488640

He followed up in a letter to Trump on Tuesday, repeatedly thanking the administration and expressing “excitement” for future federal-state collaboration.

Hogan is far from the only governor to face criticism from the president during the pandemic, even in the D.C. region. Governor Ralph Northam has been at the receiving end as well. Trump has tweeted to “LIBERATE” battleground states run by Democrats, including Virginia, Minnesota, and Michigan, from stay-at-home orders. “Our president has been unable to deliver on tests,” Northam, a Democrat, said on CNN. “Now he has chosen to focus on protests.”

On Monday, Trump also criticized another governor, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, for supposedly misunderstanding the federal government’s testing resources. Pritzker was reportedly organizing secrets flights of masks and gloves from China to protect the federal government from seizing the equipment.

This story has been updated to include a letter that Gov. Hogan sent to President Trump.