Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam hit back at President Donald Trump on Thursday, slamming the president for his weekends spent golfing at his properties after Trump said Northam "doesn't even show up" for work.

"Ed Gillespie will be a great Governor of Virginia. His opponent doesn't even show up to meetings/work, and will be VERY weak on crime!" Trump wrote Thursday morning. Gillespie, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, is a former Republican National Committee chairman, lobbyist and adviser to former President George W. Bush.

The Gillespie campaign has criticized Northam for skipping meetings of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, of which he is an ex officio member.

"Ed Gillespie will turn the really bad Virginia economy #'s around, and fast. Strong on crime, he might even save our great statues/heritage!" Trump added, possibly alluding to the white supremacist rally protesting the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August. Trump stoked controversy by saying there were "very good people" among the neo-Nazis and white supremacists at the rally, during which a woman was killed when a man plowed a car into a crowd of counter-protesters.

In response, Northam, the lieutenant governor, touted his service as a U.S. Army doctor and his work volunteering at a free medical clinic for low-income Virginians in a remote area.

"I served 8 years in the Army, took care of sick kids, and am running to build a more inclusive Virginia," he tweeted. "Don't talk to me about showing up."

"While I was treating patients at the RAM clinic, Donald Trump was golfing in Sterling," he added. "You tell me who doesn't show up for Virginians."

Trump has made 22 visits to the Trump National Golf Club, according to data compiled by NBC, and has spent 95 days so far at properties he owns since taking office 279 days ago. The White House defends the trips, noting that the apparatus of the White House travels with him and he doesn't truly take days off.

Virginia's sitting governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, weighed in as well, tweeting that the state's unemployment figure sits below the national average.

"Virginia unemployment is 3.7%. National unemployment is 4.2%," McAuliffe wrote. "Stop tweeting and get to work."

The Virginia governor's election, a tightening race that is seen as having national implications, is on Nov. 7.

For his part, Gillespie has tried to walk a tightrope between appealing to the GOP base that brought Trump within six points of Hillary Clinton in 2016 in a state that has trended blue in recent election cycles and moderate Republicans wary of stoking culture wars over Confederate statues and immigration.