As the coronavirus continues to escalate in regions across the U.S., governors and state officials are scrambling to get the essential medical resources they need, from personal protective equipment for health care workers to ventilators. And while they’re begging the federal government and President Donald Trump for help, the Trump administration has long made it clear that they will only do so much. “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment—try getting it yourselves,” Trump told governors during a conference call on March 16. “We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.” That strategy, however, is only resulting in more chaos—and the federal government may be making things worse.

State governors are complaining that the federal government’s directive for states to fend for themselves has resulted in an intense bidding war, raising the costs of limited medical resources as states fight amongst themselves to get their share. “You now literally will have a company call you up and say, ‘Well, California just outbid you,’” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news briefing Tuesday. “It’s like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator.” (Trump said Tuesday that states “shouldn’t be” bidding against each other, and, when asked about Cuomo’s comments, said the governor “shouldn’t be complaining because we gave him a lot of ventilators,” though the federal government gave New York far fewer than they need. “The problem is, with some people, no matter what you give, it is never enough,” Trump said.) In Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker complained Thursday about the “incredibly messy thicket” the state had to navigate to get equipment, as their orders repeatedly get canceled. “I’m telling you, we’re killing ourselves trying to make it happen,” Baker said. “We’ve literally gotten to the point where our basic position is that until the God—until the thing shows up here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it doesn’t exist.”

The governors, as a result, are begging the federal government for help procuring supplies and other assistance, appealing directly to the Trump administration and even stressing their needs through bipartisan op-eds. Baker and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wrote about why “direct support from Washington [is] so essential” Friday in the New York Times, while Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer made their case in the Washington Post. “Americans are stepping up — recognizing their own responsibility to help flatten the curve and to protect the most vulnerable among us,” Hogan and Whitmer wrote. “To support them, Washington must go further.”

While the federal government has been stepping up and sending much-needed supplies to states—though typically in far smaller quantities than requested— the administration has also made things harder for the states they’re purporting to support. The federal government has joined in on the bidding wars, driving up the prices and competing directly with the states they would be sending the supplies. “What sense does this make? The federal government, FEMA, should have been the purchasing agent, buy everything, and then allocate by need to the states,” Cuomo said Tuesday. “Why would you create a situation where the 50 states are competing with each other, and then the federal government and FEMA comes in and competes with the rest of them?” Massachusetts’ canceled orders have often been because of the federal government’s influence, as the federal government has stepped in and exercised its authority over the state, using force majeure to cancel or impound multiple orders. In a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Peter Gaynor, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren rallied against the “new and inexplicable obstacle” of the federal government interfering in Massachusetts’ purchases. “Massachusetts state officials are continuing to face federal impediments as they scramble to find essential medical equipment to respond to a public health emergency,” Warren wrote. “This is unacceptable, and I request answers on behalf of the Commonwealth.”