Trump is, as happens about 70% of the time, right in his instincts. Unfortunately I suspect, as happens about 70% of the time, his course of action based on those instincts will be severely suboptimal. (No it's not the same 70% of the time, sometimes his good instincts coincide with a good course of action, cf. judicial appointments, sometimes he's off on both, cf. throwing the Kurds under the proverbial bus, sometimes he comes up with a sensible course of action for a problem that doesn't really need to be solved.)
He's right that poorly run states should not get bailouts on the basis of the crisis created by the pandemic. However, every state, even the best run, are facing severe budget short-falls due to the collapse in economic activity and thus tax revenues, which cannot, as can be done at the Federal level, be papered over with borrowing, as almost all (I think all but one, if I recall correctly) have balanced budget requirements in their constitutions. State government (and local governments, which are their creatures) are the primary residuum of police powers, public health powers, education, prisons and parole officers, fish and wildlife management, and a host of local services. Having them all suddenly unable to fund those activities will be a disaster. So, how to bail out the states without rewarding the profligacy on the coasts? Peg the amount to the per capita shortfall in the state with the smallest per capita shortfall, and scale it by the population of the state -- have the OMB (or CBO) run the numbers based on publicly available data, not what the states claim so the profligate can't try to game the system.
