Maryland Governor Wes Moore has said he’ll be a ‘soldier’ in defense of his state after President Donald Trump threatened to send federal agents to tackle Baltimore’s down ‘out of control’ crime.
Moore’s comments condemning Trump came shortly after exclusive pictures by Daily Mail showed him enjoying the trappings of Lake Como in Italy as recently as Monday afternoon.
Moore and his wife Dawn even had the privilege of staying a villa owned by George Clooney, a top Hollywood voice in the Democratic party.
But now that he’s back in Maryland, Moore once again took aim at the president for his comments about possibly deploying the National Guard in places like Chicago, New Orleans and Baltimore.
Trump said during a news conference on Tuesday that he has ‘the right to do it, because I have an obligation to protect this country. And that includes Baltimore.’
Moore again insisted that since he is the commander in chief of the Maryland National Guard, Trump has no right to federalize his troops.
He also zeroed in on Trump’s statement that Baltimore is a ‘hell hole’ and called back to his military service as a reason why he’ll be a good fighter against the White House.
‘When you’re coming after our people, people know that I’m a soldier, and I will fight for and protect our people, and that is all I’m doing. This is not about trying to fight Donald Trump. This is about me fighting for Marylanders,’ Moore said.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore has said he will resist the White House’s desire to send National Guard troops into Baltimore to drive crime down
This comes after Moore had a ritzy vacation in Lake Como, Italy, where they stayed at George Clooney’s villa
Trump has said he wants Moore and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to call him and ask him to send in troops to patrol their states’ biggest cities
Crime in Baltimore is indeed down in Baltimore, with homicides declining by 40 percent since 2020.
In the more near term, Baltimore has had 68 homicides this year as of July 1, which police said was a 22 percent year-over-year decrease. They also reported a 19 percent decrease in non-fatal shootings.
Still, Baltimore had the sixth highest murder rate per capita in 2024 at 34.8 per 100,000 residents.
In Washington, D.C., where Trump declared a crime emergency last month and activated hundreds of National Guard troops, the murder rate was lower than Baltimore’s at 27.9 per 100,000 residents.
Trump has said he wants Moore and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to call him and ask him to send in troops to patrol their states’ biggest cities.
But even if they don’t, Trump admitted he still plans to carry out his plan to use the National Guard as a police force in Democratic-run cities.
‘If the Governor of Illinois would call me up, I would love to do it,’ Trump said on Tuesday.
‘Now, we’re going to do it anyway, we have the right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country,’ he added. ‘And that includes Baltimore.’
‘I saw where Gov. Moore was asking me to take a walk down the street of Baltimore. Well, Baltimore is a very unsafe place.’
