Trump threatens to send the military to Baltimore to ‘clean up’ crime
President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to send the military into Baltimore to “quickly clean up” crime.
“But if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, referring to the Democratic governors of Maryland and California and using a derogatory nickname for Gavin Newsom.
Trump’s comments are the latest in a line of threats to replicate the D.C. deployment in cities across the country after hundreds of National Guard troops were brought to D.C. in what he’s described as an effort to fight crime, though critics have painted the move as an overreach for political purposes.
Reached for comment, Moore said in a statement that Trump “would rather attack his country’s largest cities from behind a desk than walk the streets with the people he represents.”
“The President should join us in Baltimore because the blissful ignorance, tropes, and the 1980s scare tactics benefit no one,” Moore continued. “We need leaders who are there helping the people who are actually on the ground doing the work.”
Trump’s push to deploy National Guard troops to cities like D.C. is a significant departure from how presidents typically deploy the Guard, which is usually used to respond to situations like natural disasters and civil unrest.
The president first deployed thousands of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in June amid protests against immigration enforcement actions. Newsom vehemently opposed the move, accusing Trump of “hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control.”
Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. earlier this month as part of a stated effort to fight crime, though at the time of his announcement, violent crime had decreased 26% compared to last year, according to D.C. police data.
NBC News reported last week that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an order authorizing about 2,000 National Guard troops in D.C. to carry weapons. Law enforcement agents have arrested hundreds of people in D.C. since Aug. 7, according to a White House official.
Maryland’s Moore said Friday that “many of the comments that are being made from the White House come off as so, so tone deaf and so ignorant” about fighting crime.
“It’s because they have not walked our streets,” he said on CNN on Friday. “They have not been in our communities, and they’re more than happy of just making these repeated tropes about us, but not actually working with us to be able to make sure that our streets are safe and that people can have a real opportunity to feel safe in their own neighborhoods.”
Trump criticized Moore’s remarks in his Sunday Truth Social post, saying he assumed that Moore “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,’” Trump added.
Homicides in Baltimore have decreased by more than 24% this year compared to the same period last year, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said earlier this month. His office has also said that nonfatal shootings have declined 18% this year.
Moore said earlier this month on CNN that Trump was using the military as a “tool” for political purposes.
“I take very seriously about how, when and why I deploy members of our National Guard in cases of emergency and in true crises,” he said in the interview. “And I will not authorize the usage of Maryland National Guard forces for missions that I do not deem to be either mission critical or mission aligned.”
The president on Sunday also threatened to pull federal funding for the replacement of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in 2024. The federal government had previously agreed to pay for the bridge’s replacement.
“I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge,” Trump wrote. “I will now have to rethink that decision???”
Moore slammed Trump’s message, saying in a statement that “any threats to this funding will cause irrevocable damage to the national economy and to the entire State of Maryland.”
“We have already begun rebuilding, and now that Maryland is showing great progress, our President is threatening to intentionally harm Maryland,” he continued.
Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Md., said in a statement responding to Trump’s post that “Baltimore is making real progress, but sustaining our momentum requires collaboration at all levels of government.”
“President Trump’s threats to deploy troops to American cities and cancel funding approved by Congress are illegal, unhelpful and directly at odds to that progress,” added Olszewski, who represents parts of Baltimore.
In recent days, Trump has also threatened to deploy the National Guard to other cities. He praised the National Guard’s work on Friday, going on to say, “I think Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker hit back on Saturday, accusing Trump in a post to X of “attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he’s causing families.”