A question for the Very Stable Genius: why are you bugged that Governor Hogan got testing kits from South Korea?

You've been after governors to ramp up their state-level efforts to do more testing, saying that the federal government isn't an "ordering clerk." You even got a little testy about it, pun intended.

Fair enough. Generally speaking, and certainly in regard to this matter, I'm big on keeping government activity as local as possible.

So Republican Maryland governor Larry Hogan, using some connections his South Korean wife Yumi had, obtained 500,000 kits:

The governor said they quietly combatted 13-hour time differences and regulatory red tape to get the shipment, as Mr. Trump says he’ll support state efforts but he expects governors to do the heavy lifting.

So what's up with this?

Donald Trump insulted the governor of Maryland for purchasing coronavirus testing kits from South Korea, claiming he "didn't understand too much about what was going on" while defending the administration's slow response to the pandemic.

The president insisted during a White House press briefing on Monday that Governor Larry Hogan (R—Md) didn’t actually need to purchase the reported 500,000 testing kits from South Korea. The country confirmed its first case of the novel virus on 20 January — the same day as the US — and quickly managed to ramp up its testing capabilities, in turn reducing the spread of transmissions.

“Some of the governors like, as an example, the governor from Maryland, didn't really understand the list, he didn't understand too much about what was going on”, Mr Trump said, citing a list of nearly 5,000 federally-operated labs accepting coronavirus tests nationwide. The White House reportedly distributed the list to state governments in recent days.

“I don’t think he needed to go to South Korea,” the president continued. “I think he needed to get a little knowledge — would have been helpful.”

Governor Hogan opted to be the bigger person and respond graciously:

Mr Hogan also tweeted on Monday night that he was “grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs”, as well as for “generously offering Maryland use of them” for Covid-19 testing.

He added: “Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilising the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea.” 

Vice President Pence, as usual, had to play cleanup, a role he's surely tiring of, even though he publicly continues to gush over the VSG:

On Monday, the vice president said about Mr Hogan’s purchasing of testing kits from South Korea: “I wouldn't begrudge him or his health officials for ordering tests."

This was not a good look for a president whose political future hinges on the public sensing that testing is going to become much more widely available.