The war of words between Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland escalated Sunday with the president threatening to send National Guard troops to Baltimore to attempt to reduce crime, and the first-term governor suggesting Trump was peddling outdated racist tropes he referred to as “blissful ignorance” to score political points.
The tit-for-tat comes as the Trump administration is looking to expand the use of military personnel to the streets of Democratic-run cities which he often describes as crime-ridden, including the use of more than 2,000 National Guard troops in Washington. It also comes days after Moore issued a challenge to Trump by formally inviting him to the state to take part in a public safety walk next month.
“Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns. “Wes Moore’s record on Crime is a very bad one, unless he fudges his figures on crime … I will send the ‘troops,’ like what’s being done in nearby D.C.”
“Also, I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will have to rethink that decision,” Trump later added, referring to the deadly March 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge that killed six people after it was struck by a massive cargo ship.
Moore defended his efforts to reduce crime down since he took office in 2023.
He argued the homicide rate in the state has dropped more than 20 percent, adding “the last time the homicide rate was this low in Baltimore City, I was not born yet,” pointing to statistics that show the city’s 68 homicides through the first half of the year are the fewest in 50 years.
“The reason that I asked the President to come and join us is because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance … these tropes and these 1980s scare tactics,” Moore said in an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
When host Margaret Brennan pointed to FBI statistics showing Baltimore with the fifth most instances of violent crime per capita and the fourth highest murder rate, Moore’s retort was that “we have work to do.” Moore looked to cast blame on the president for cutting violence prevention funding and engaging in performative politics. He also played up his own military service in Afghanistan, contrasting it to Trump who has been criticized for dodging the draft during the Vietnam War.
“As someone who actually deployed overseas and served my country in combat, to ask these men and women to do a job that they're not trained for is just deeply disrespectful,” Moore said, reiterating he would not deploy the Maryland National Guard, which he oversees. “The members of our National Guard are trained up to be able to address things like emergency situations, situations where you need, where you need a surge of supports for traumas and disasters that are happening within individual jurisdictions. That is not this, and this is a direct deflection that the President is authorizing.”
Moore’s invitation to tour Baltimore comes days after Trump on Thursday promised to patrol the streets of the District of Columbia with Metropolitan police and military personnel. But after addressing officers and military personnel who delivered hamburgers and pizza, no patrol was carried out and he returned to the White House.
Earlier this month when announcing “Liberation Day in D.C.” Trump listed Baltimore and other cities run by Black Democratic mayors, including Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles and New York as places that are “so far gone” and crime-infested that federal intervention would be a consideration.
The Washington Post on Sunday reported the Pentagon has been for weeks planning a military deployment in Chicago.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott seemed to reject the idea of federal troops in his city, but on Friday called for “additional resources” for the city’s ATF, DEA and FBI field offices, as part of a list of “commitments” the city wants to see from the Trump administration.
“Otherwise, if Trump wants to roll into Baltimore purely to stage a photo op and spew racist narratives about Black-led cities, I speak for the vast majority of our residents when I say: We are not interested.”
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