WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says it would be unfair to Republicans if Congress passes coronavirus “bailouts” for states because he said the states that would benefit from that funding are run by Democrats.

“I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things but I don’t think they’re inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague,” Trump told the New York Post in a sit-down interview in the Oval Office on Monday.

The president continued, “It’s not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help — they’re run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic — very little debt.”

The president named California, Illinois and New York as examples of states that are currently run by Democratic governors and are in “tremendous debt” because he said they “have been mismanaged over a long period of time.”

Democrats have made it clear that approving funding for states and municipalities is their top priority for the next piece of legislation.

Maryland’s GOP governor, Larry Hogan, who serves as the chairman of the National Governors Association, has also been urging Congress to send states financial aid. His own state is facing a nearly $3 billion budget shortfall this year.

“To stabilize state budgets and to make sure states have the resources to battle the virus and provide the services the American people rely on, Congress must provide immediate fiscal assistance directly to all states,” Hogan recently said in a statement.

Hogan said that if Congress doesn’t appropriate at least $500 billion specifically for states and territories to meet the budget shortfalls, “states will have to confront the prospect of significant reductions to critically important services all across this country.”

Last week, Trump addressed the issue on Twitter, saying, “Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has suggested that instead of Congress sending aid to states, they should declare bankruptcy, a comment that has deeply angered Democrats.

“Really? Really?” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said during a press call last week. She said that Illinois has not done well financially because of mistakes made under its previous Republican governor.

The states are required to balance their budgets and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said if McConnell thinks bankruptcy is such a great idea, then he should pass a bill in Congress permitting the states to go that route.

Cuomo has been pushing for Congress to pass funding for states since lawmakers negotiated the first major aid package last month that totaled more than $2 trillion. He called McConnell’s bankruptcy suggestion “really dumb.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called McConnell “out of touch”and warned that the Senate major leader’s idea would lead to “hundreds of thousands” of state and local government employees being potentially fired or furloughed.

Meanwhile, a number of Democrats have pointed out that blue states do more to help subsidize red states.

Three of the four biggest “taker” states, as Cuomo has described them, lean Republican: Kentucky, Mississippi and West Virginia, according to a 2019 study by the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government that looked at how much states get from the federal government per year, compared with how much they send to Washington.

The four biggest “giver” states that contribute more to the federal government than they get receive all lean Democratic: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, the study found.