President Trump on Sunday told Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to “clean up this crime disaster” before he would visit Baltimore for a public safety walk, in response to a letter by the governor inviting the president to visit. Mr. Trump also threatened to rethink the federal funding set to aid in replacing the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Last week, Moore invited the president to Baltimore on a date of Mr. Trump’s choosing following what he described as personal “insults from the Oval Office,” after he expressed concern over the president’s decision to deploy National Guard personnel for municipal policing in Washington, D.C. In recent remarks, Mr. Trump said Baltimore was “so far gone,” as far as crime is concerned.
On “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday, Moore said Trump’s rhetoric on crime is “purely performative” as the president has offered to send troops to Baltimore amid a push to crack down on crime that began in the nation’s capital in recent weeks and could extend to other major cities.
“While the President is spending his time from the Oval Office making jabs and attacks at us, there are people actually on the ground doing the work who know what supports would actually work to continue to bring down crime. But it’s falling on deaf ears of the president of the United States,” Moore said.
The White House, in a statement to WJZ last week, shared an article by U.S. News and World Report that showed Baltimore ranks as the fourth worst in the nation in crime and murders. According to a U.S. and World News report, Baltimore ranks behind only Memphis, Oakland and St. Louis.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, doubled down on the “out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore.”
“Stop talking and get to work, Wes,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “I’ll then see you on the streets!!!”
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote.
According to Moore, since his inauguration, homicides in Maryland have decreased statewide by 20%. He said that in the first six months of 2025, the Baltimore Police Department saw double-digit reductions in gun violence, including a 28% decrease in homicides and a 19% decrease in non-fatal shootings from the year before.
Maryland pushes back against National Guard threats
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., to assist law enforcement and to crack down on what he has called an “epidemic of crime,” despite data showing crime has declined in the city in recent years, CBS News has reported. After spiking in 2023, violent crime in D.C. has been declining for the last year and a half, according to local police data. Mr. Trump has claimed that crime is on the upswing.
The president also suggested he could do the same for other cities, including Baltimore, which sparked pushback from state and local leaders.
“If there’s anything Maryland has proven over the last two years, it’s that we can achieve performance without being performative,” Moore said. “Progress requires the right tool for the right mission. Asking the patriotic citizen soldiers of our National Guard to police our cities doesn’t meet that test.”
Mr. Trump has claimed that crime is down in D.C. since the National Guard was deployed there.
“After only one week, there is NO CRIME AND NO MURDER IN DC!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “When it is like that in Baltimore, I will proudly ‘walk the streets’ with the failing, because of crime, governor of Maryland.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joined WJZ during Thursday’s 11 p.m. News, saying that the city doesn’t need the help of the National Guard. Rather, he wants the president to send more federal law enforcement resources to Baltimore, including increasing federal agents to work with the city’s police department.
“We know that the National Guard is not the way,” Scott said. “That’s not what those soldiers signed up to do.”
Scott said he recognizes the effort to combat violent crime is not complete, but he credited the city’s Gun Violence Reduction Strategy for the decline in the crime rate.
“Too many people in our communities, too many police officers, too many community violence intervention workers and folks have put their lives on the line each and every day to make the city a safer place,” he said. “As safe as it’s been in my lifetime.”
Rethinking Key Bridge funding
In December 2024, Congress passed a deal on a federal spending package, which allocated $100 billion for disaster relief, including funding for the entire cost of a new Key Bridge.
The bridge collapsed in March 2024 after it was struck by the cargo ship Dali, which lost power and crashed into one of the main support piers, sending several members of a construction crew filling potholes on the bridge into the Patapsco River. Six people died.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Also, I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision???”
The bridge rebuild is expected to be completed by late 2028.
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