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Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Monday called President Trump a “fraudulent would-be king,” as the Trump administration is looking to expand its federal takeover of local police departments outside of the nation’s capital.
“I think that everybody is standing up for their state, like Gov. Moore is standing up for the free state of Maryland,” Raskin said in an appearance on CNN’s “The Arena,” speaking of the Old Line State Gov. Wes Moore (D). “I think the mayors are standing up for their cities.”
“We’re not going to be pushed around by this fraudulent would-be king, and the fact that people are teasing him and making fun of him shows that all of the mockery and ridicule that Trump operates on can be turned around in a free society, because that’s how the First Amendment operates,” the lawmaker told Pamela Brown.
Trump and Moore exchanged criticisms over the weekend after the president threatened to send National Guard troops to other Democratic-run cities, including Baltimore and Chicago.
The president slammed the Maryland governor, who was elected to the role in 2022, for suggesting the president visit the city and “walk our streets and not just talk about us from the Oval Office” amid a recent speech.
“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 Sunday on Truth Social. “I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore? As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.’”
He also seemingly referenced a New York Times story that reported Moore, who served in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan, incorrectly said he had received a Bronze Star in a White House fellowship application when he was in his 20s. The Democratic governor apologized later on, saying it was an “honest mistake.”
Trump’s attacks garnered a fiery response from Moore.
“Trump is doing everything in his power to distract from the Epstein files. Really makes you wonder…” he wrote in a post on the social platform X.
“Did Donald Trump, the President of the United States, lie about an injury to dodge the Vietnam draft?” he added.
Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, said in a Tuesday email to The Hill that “If Democrats spent half as much time addressing crime in their cities as they did going on cable news to complain about President Trump, their residents would be a lot safer.”
Updated at 3:56 p.m. EDT
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