President Donald Trump speaks to law enforcement officers during a patrol through Washington, DC, Aug 21. Credit – Anna Moneymaker – Getty Images
President Donald Trump threatened to “send in the ‘troops’” to Baltimore in a lengthy social media post on Sunday directed at Maryland’s Democrat governor, Wes Moore.
The threat came in response to an invitation from Moore for the President to take part in a safety walk in Baltimore following Trump’s repeated comments about the city’s problems with crime.
“As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk,’” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social.
“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,” he added.
Moore responded soon after with his own jab at the president.
“President Bone Spurs will do anything to get out of walking – even if that means spouting off more lies about the progress we’re making on public safety in Maryland, he wrote on X.
“Hey Donald, we can get you a golf cart if that makes things easier. Just let my team know,” he added.
Read more: Trump Says Chicago Is Next in His Crackdown on Crime. Here Are the Facts About Crime in the City
Trump’s threat comes nearly two weeks after he deployed the National Guard and took federal control over the police force in Washington, D.C., as part of what his administration has claimed is a crackdown on crime.
In June, the President deployed the California National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell protests against his administration’s immigration policies and an escalation of deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Trump’s threat to deploy troops to Baltimore follows a series of similar threats aimed at Democratic-run cities across the country as part of what the Trump Administration claims is a crackdown on crime.
When announcing the federal takeover of Washington, D.C., Trump said: “This will go further.”
“We’re going to take back our capital … and then we’ll look at other cities also,” singling out Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, and Oakland.
The President said Friday that Chicago was next on his list, telling reporters: “After we do this, we’ll go to another location and we’ll make it safe also.”
“Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent, and we’ll straighten that one out, probably next.”
Trump has begun to use the potential deployment of National Guard troops as a cudgel to hit back at his Democratic critics. His spat with Moore appears to have been sparked by Moore’s criticism of Trump’s takeover of Washington, D.C.
In his letter to Trump inviting him to Baltimore, Moore wrote that public safety was personally important to him because he “grew up in and around communities left behind by people in power, who sought to weaponize the pain of their constituents through hollow talking points that never changed the reality on the ground.”
“Homicides in Maryland are down statewide by 20% since my inauguration two and a half years ago. In the first six months of 2025, the Baltimore Police Department continued to see double-digit reductions in gun violence, including a 22% decrease in homicides and a 19% decrease in non-fatal shootings from the year before. We are currently on track to have the lowest number of homicides in Baltimore City since we began officially keeping crime statistics,” he added.
Trump responded in his post that “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,” without providing evidence for his claim.
Contact us at letters@time.com.
