WASHINGTON – President Trump slammed Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday on guns, high taxes and dared the Democrat to challenge him for the White House in 2020.

Speaking at a campaign event in Utica, Trump said Cuomo telephoned him and pledged to “never” run against Trump for president.

“But maybe he wants to,” Trump said of Cuomo’s aspirations. “Please do it. Please do it. Please!”

Trump added: “The one thing we know … anybody that runs against Trump suffers. That’s the way it should be.”

Speaking at the rally to support Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) in a tough reelection fight, Trump told supporters Cuomo is the “one reason” New Yorkers have high taxes. The adoring Trump supporters booed.

He also said Cuomo wants to “end your Second Amendment.”

The governor fired back in a statement: “Donald Trump & the NRA – bankrupt bedfellows: literally and morally. Unlike Trump, I’m not afraid to take on the NRA.”

In a statement before Trump’s event, Cuomo said: “Despite being a native New Yorker, since you took office, you have attacked our healthcare, passed a tax law that punished New York in order to fund corporate tax cuts, ripped immigrant New Yorkers from their families, launched an assault on our environment, and undermined the basic values on which this state and this nation were built.”

Trump lamented that his home state had become so “sad,” he was once considering running for governor.

“But I decided to run for president instead,” Trump told the crowd.