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‘If Wes Moore needs help’: After New York, Chicago, Trump adds Maryland's Baltimore to the list for ‘sending in troops’
Maryland Governor Moore has been a strong critic of Trump's unprecedented use of federal power to combat crime and homelessness in Washington DC.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday responded to an offer from Maryland Governor Wes Moore to join him on a tour of the city of Baltimore by threatening to "send in the troops".
With this threat, the list of Democrat-run cities on Trump's target expanded after Chicago and New York. He has already unleashed thousands of National Guard and federal law enforcement officers patrolling the streets of the national capital, Washington, DC.
Governor Moore has been a strong critic of Trump's unprecedented use of federal power to combat crime and homelessness in Washington. Last week, Moore invited Trump to visit his state to discuss public safety and walk the streets.
The Republican responded to the call in a Truth Social post on Sunday by calling Moore's tone "nasty and provocative".
"Wes Moore's record on Crime is a very bad one, unless he fudges his figures on crime like many of the other Blue States are doing. But if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in LA, I will send in the troops, which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime," Trump wrote in the post.
The US President deployed the National Guard in California's Los Angeles over the objections of the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. He then did the same in Washington, DC. He even talked about how "unsafe" the national capital was in the presence of a visibly surprised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last Monday.
Baltimore crime numbers
While Donald Trump claimed that Governor Wes Moore's performance on crime in Baltimore has been "bad", the numbers paint a different picture.
After a spike during the pandemic that matched nationwide trends, Baltimore's violent crime rate has fallen. The 200 homicides reported last year were down 24% from the prior year and 42% since 2021, according to city data. Between 2023 and 2024, overall violent crime was down nearly 8% and property crimes down 20%, the Associated Press reported.
Governor Moore said he invited Trump to Maryland "because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance" about improving crime rates in Baltimore.
"The president is spending all of his time talking about me. I'm spending my time talking about the people I serve," Moore said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
In Washington, where Trump is surging National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers, a patchwork of protests popped up throughout the city over the weekend, while some normally bustling corners were noticeably quiet. In some of the most populated areas, residents walked by small groups of national guardsmen, often talking among themselves. Videos of arrests and detainments circulated on social media.
Trump has said Chicago and New York are most likely his next targets, eliciting strong pushback from Democratic leaders in both states. The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Pentagon has spent weeks preparing for an operation in Chicago that would include National Guard troops and potentially active duty forces.
