President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to send the “troops” to Baltimore, Maryland, in a Truth Social post. In the post, Trump responded to a letter Maryland Gov. Wes Moore sent dated Aug. 21, where he invited the president to the state so they could “discuss strategies for effective public safety policy.”
“Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I “walk the streets of Maryland” with him. I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore?” Trump said in the post. “As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk’.”
Moore said in the letter that Trump responded to his concerns about the potential deployment of the National Guard in Baltimore by “insulting me personally from the Oval Office.”
“I wanted to write in order to clarify the root of my frustration and extend an invitation for you to visit Maryland, where we can discuss strategies for effective public safety policy,” Moore wrote.
The president previously criticized Baltimore, as well as other cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, for being “bad” on crime after he deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. and had the federal government take over the Metropolitan Police Department.
“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 wrote.
Trump also, in the post, said he “will now have to rethink” the federal funding that was given to fix Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. Six people died when a cargo ship crashed into the bridge on March 2024, causing it to collapse. The United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration under President Joe Biden sent $60 million in “quick release” funds after the collapse, and more federal funding was provided in a stopgap budget bill passed in December. USA TODAY reported a new bridge to replace Francis Scott Key won’t be finished until 2028, and could end up being more than $1.9 billion.
Moore’s communications director sent out a statement on behalf of the governor Sunday afternoon, where he called Baltimore “a story of resilience and strength” and touted its decreasing crime rates.
“When I took office, Baltimore averaged nearly a homicide a day. Today, after record-level funding for law enforcement and increased coordination, homicides in Baltimore are lower than when I was born — the fewest homicides at this point in a year in the last fifty years,” Moore said. “These ideals are something the President fails to understand because when his time came to serve, he ran away. In Maryland, we do not run away. We will continue to meet these challenges head-on–working in partnership with local, state, and federal officials to take an all-of-the-above approach to public safety that is showing results across the state.”
According to mid-year crime data from the Baltimore Police Department, there was a 22% decrease in homicides (88 to 68) and a 19% decrease in non-fatal shootings from 2024 to 2025 (204 to 164).
Taking to X on Friday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott touted the drop in gun violence.
“This has not happened by chance. It is the result of an intentional strategy, coordinated alongside local, state and federal law enforcement, violence interrupters and community leaders,” Scott said.
Scott said Trump sending the National Guard to cities shows “he will do anything and sacrifice anyone to boost his own ego” and that “he has no real solutions to make our country any safer, healthier or freer.”
What Baltimore needs instead, Scott said, is the full reinstatement of eliminated federal grants for Baltimore’s community violence intevention work; financial support for community violence intervention work; a federal ghost gun and Glock switch ban; more resources for Baltimore’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI field offices and a full repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment. The Tiahrt Amendment makes it so the ATF cannot release information from its database to trace firearms to anyone besides law enforcement.
