Washington — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Sunday that President 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 on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Mr. Trump moved to federalize the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department earlier this month and deployed the National Guard to the district to assist law enforcement, despite data showing crime has declined in the city in recent years.
Upon announcing the moves, the president outlined that the effort “will go further,” saying the administration is “starting very strongly with D.C.” and suggesting it could then move to other cities, though the president has unique authority over the D.C. National Guard because the district is controlled by the federal government. He referenced crime rates in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Baltimore and Oakland.
Last week, Moore, a Democrat, sent a letter to Mr. Trump inviting him to attend a public safety walk in Maryland, while touting the state’s investments in local law enforcement and other efforts to address crime under his administration. In 2025, Baltimore has seen a 22% decrease in homicides from last year, according to the Baltimore Police Department.
The governor said Sunday that “the reason that I asked the president to come and join us is because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these 1980s scare tactics.”
“We know we have work to do,” Moore said. “If one person does not feel safe in their neighborhood, that’s one too many. But we also know what tactics actually work, and what tactics is just theatrics.”
Moore’s appearance on “Face the Nation” came shortly after Mr. Trump took aim at the governor on Truth Social Sunday morning, responding to the mayor’s request by saying, “As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.’”
Although Mr. Trump dismissed Moore’s suggestion, he said last week that he would be joining federal authorities in D.C. “on patrol.” He instead visited a U.S. Park Police facility in Southeast D.C.
“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,” the president added. “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.”
The push in D.C. followed the president’s move to deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles in June amid heated protests over immigration raids, prompting a lawsuit from the California governor, who did not approve of the use of his state’s Guard forces and called it an illegal “power grab.” Mr. Trump and Newsom’s sparring has escalated as Newsom’s public profile as a potential 2028 candidate has grown.
Moore said Sunday that the operation in D.C. is “not scalable,” saying “you’re not going to be able to do this in every single major American city.” He also argued that the crackdown on crime in the district is “not sustainable,” “deeply disrespectful” to the National Guard, and “unconstitutional.”
“There is a multitude of reasons that I am against this, and I will not authorize the Maryland National Guard to be utilized for this,” Moore added.
The Maryland governor acknowledged that crime must be addressed, while recalling the aftermath of a mass shooting in Baltimore early in his tenure as governor.
“I said at that point, ‘I refuse to continue doing this and not putting the proper resources in place, and not being able to put a real focus on making our communities safer,’” Moore said. “And that’s why it is so frustrating when we’re hearing from the president of the United States something that is just purely performative, without actually focusing on these communities and these neighborhoods who believe that progress is possible.”
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
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