Wes Moore says Trump’s rhetoric on crime is “purely performative” as president provides to ship troops to Baltimore

Washington — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stated Sunday that President Trump’s rhetoric on crime is “purely performative” because the president has provided to ship troops to Baltimore amid a push to crack down on crime that started within the nation’s capital in latest weeks and might lengthen to different main cities. 

“Whereas the President is spending his time from the Oval Workplace making jabs and assaults at us, there are individuals really on the bottom doing the work who know what helps would really work to proceed to convey down crime. Nevertheless it’s falling on deaf ears of the president of america,” Moore stated on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

Mr. Trump moved to federalize the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Division earlier this month and deployed the Nationwide Guard to the district to help legislation enforcement, regardless of information displaying crime has declined within the metropolis lately. 

Upon asserting the strikes, the president outlined that the trouble “will go additional,” saying the administration is “beginning very strongly with D.C.” and suggesting it might then transfer to different cities, although the president has distinctive authority over the D.C. Nationwide Guard as a result of the district is managed by the federal authorities. He referenced crime charges in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York Metropolis, Baltimore and Oakland.

Final week, Moore, a Democrat, despatched a letter to Mr. Trump inviting him to attend a public security stroll in Maryland, whereas touting the state’s investments in native legislation enforcement and different efforts to deal with crime underneath his administration. In 2025, Baltimore has seen a 22% lower in homicides from final 12 months, in response to the Baltimore Police Division.

The governor stated Sunday that “the rationale that I requested the president to return and be a part of us is as a result of he appears to take pleasure in residing on this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these Nineteen Eighties scare ways.”

“We all know we have now work to do,” Moore stated. “If one particular person doesn’t really feel protected of their neighborhood, that is one too many. However we additionally know what ways really work, and what ways is simply theatrics.”

Moore’s look on “Face the Nation” got here shortly after Mr. Trump took purpose on the governor on Fact Social Sunday morning, responding to the mayor’s request by saying, “As President, I’d a lot want that he clear up this Crime catastrophe earlier than I’m going there for a ‘stroll.'”

Though Mr. Trump dismissed Moore’s suggestion, he stated final week that he could be becoming a member of federal authorities in D.C. “on patrol.” He as a substitute visited a U.S. Park Police facility in Southeast D.C. 

“Wes Moore’s document on Crime is a really unhealthy one, until he fudges his figures on crime like most of the different ‘Blue States’ are doing,” the president added. “But when Wes Moore wants assist, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I’ll ship within the ‘troops,’ which is being completed in close by DC, and rapidly clear up the Crime.”

The push in D.C. adopted the president’s transfer to deploy the Nationwide Guard in Los Angeles in June amid heated protests over immigration raids, prompting a lawsuit from the California governor, who didn’t approve of using his state’s Guard forces and known as it an unlawful “energy seize.” Mr. Trump and Newsom’s sparring has escalated as Newsom’s public profile as a possible 2028 candidate has grown. 

Moore stated Sunday that the operation in D.C. is “not scalable,” saying “you are not going to have the ability to do that in each single main American metropolis.” He additionally argued that the crackdown on crime within the district is “not sustainable,” “deeply disrespectful” to the Nationwide Guard, and “unconstitutional.”

“There’s a multitude of causes that I’m towards this, and I cannot authorize the Maryland Nationwide Guard to be utilized for this,” Moore added. 

The Maryland governor acknowledged that crime have to be addressed, whereas recalling the aftermath of a mass capturing in Baltimore early in his tenure as governor. 

“I stated at that time, ‘I refuse to proceed doing this and never placing the correct assets in place, and never having the ability to put an actual deal with making our communities safer,'” Moore stated. “And that is why it’s so irritating once we’re listening to from the president of america one thing that’s simply purely performative, with out really specializing in these communities and these neighborhoods who consider that progress is feasible.”