Posted on 08/16/25
| News Source: FOX45
Annapoils, MD - Aug. 16, 2025 - President Donald Trump slammed Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday, as a dispute over the National Guard’s role in crime suppression also escalated into a war of words with the leader of Baltimore’s police union — drawing national attention to the state’s public safety policies.
Speaking from the Oval Office during what was scheduled as a celebration of the 90th anniversary of Social Security, Trump was asked almost immediately about his crime crackdown and the use of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
I heard this character they talk about him as a candidate. He’s got no chance, the governor of Maryland,” Trump said. “They say maybe he’ll be a president, but he’s not presidential timber at all.”
The president said he watched Moore on television earlier on Thursday, saying members of the National Guard are not trained for policing missions.
Moore appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and FOX News Channel between Tuesday and Wednesday to emphasize that he will not authorize the Maryland National Guard for crime suppression. Those clips have since been replayed widely on cable and social media.
“They’re [National Guard] trained in common sense,” Trump said. “They’re trained in not allowing people to burn down buildings, bomb buildings, and shoot people, and all the things. They’ve done a great job.”
Trump praised his decision to deploy the National Guard also to Los Angeles to quell civil unrest, some of which turned violent, as a result of immigration enforcement operations.
Maryland’s governor did not use his official government social media, but hours later posted a video response on his political campaign-affiliated X account.
“So while I was on the Eastern Shore, opening up a new health clinic in rural Maryland, the president of the United States took to the Oval Office to attack me,” Moore said. “And he attacked me because I was critical of his performative decision to put military personnel in American cities to perform municipal policing functions.”
Moore said in the video that he had served the nation previously through military service, saying he “knows what is being asked of these men and women, every time we ask them to activate.”
“Our military, we were trained to fight and win our nation’s wars,” Moore said. “Our National Guards are trained to respond to states that are seeing times of emergency or crisis.”
If the president wants to have a real conversation about how to reduce violence, like we have had in the state of Maryland since I’ve been the governor, where Maryland has had amongst the fastest drops of violent crime anywhere in the United States of America, I am ready to have that conversation, anytime, Mr. President,” Moore added.
Despite historic double-digit decreases in violent crime, FBI crime data still shows Baltimore ranked in the top three nationwide with the highest homicide rate.
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Moore did not include that he invoked the president’s name during remarks at a ribbon-cutting at the TidalHealth Edward Q. Wilgus Community Center in Salisbury, similar to most public speeches he has given for the past two months.
“At a time when we are watching prioritization coming from Washington that is passing policies that aren’t funding rural hospitals, at a time when we are watching a Washington that is willing to jeopardize the health of 40,000 Wicomico County residents who are on Medicaid, at a time when we are watching Washington, who is bend over backwards to find ways to support those who are wealthy, and forgetting about those who are not, we are committed to making sure in this state, we are going to fulfill our values I was taught at 17 years old: Leave no one behind,” Moore said.
Hours before the governor’s appearance at the medical center, he took to WBAL NewsRadio to answer questions about his National Guard stance, including criticism from Mike Mancuso, president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police.
Mancuso told Spotlight on Maryland late Tuesday night after the governor took to the cable news circuit that he “wouldn’t expect Gov. Wes Moore to do anything but refuse help from President Trump,” adding “either you want the feds or not.”
He said the Baltimore FOP stands with the Washington, D.C., police union that praised Trump’s move to deploy the national guard to support Metropolitan Police Department in crime suppression, saying the “federal government is very much involved in the crime fight daily in Maryland and in Baltimore City, both with agents on the ground and a federal consent decree.”
Moore slammed Mancuso’s response as “political.”
"I think the politics around that comment is silly,” Moore said on WBAL NewsRadio. “We truly have taken an all-of-the-above and holistic approach when it comes to public safety, and that includes working with the federal government.”
“Any suggestion that this is a partisan decision is not just silly, it’s just unfounded,” Moore added.
In an exclusive statement to Spotlight on Maryland on Friday afternoon, Mancuso fired back again.
How can I argue with Gov. Wes Moore about my comments being silly and political?” questioned Mancuso. “I defer to his expertise in delivering silly political statements as he is the professional in that area, not me.”
Mancuso said he is a “cop who spent decades working in the narcotics and homicide divisions” in the Baltimore Police Department (BPD).
“The reduction in violent crime, in one of the most violent cities in the country, didn’t come from political actors; it came from the blood, sweat, and tears of the men and women of the BPD, in partnership with State's Attorney Ivan Bates, and his dedicated team of prosecutors,” Mancuso added.
Moore's office did not acknowledge or respond on Friday to a request for comment.
Spotlight on Maryland on Friday afternoon visited an active BPD investigation scene in what police officials called a “shooting-at” in the 2300 block of Mosher Street in West Baltimore’s Bridgeview-Greenlawn neighborhood. The incident left a 30-year-old victim with unknown injuries.
The “shooting-at” occurred in the same unit block as a children’s daycare center and the Billie Holiday Elementary School.
“It’s too much crime,” said a woman who asked not to be identified. “It’s too much violence. Too much negativity. Nobody is getting along. It’s just sad.”
The 31-year-old woman was asked about the governor and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s praising the lowering of reported violent crime incidents and how the city is improving.
No. Not at all,” the woman said. “This is trash. It’s not getting better.”
Nia Gretchem said she lives just a few doors down from the shooting incident. She said living in Baltimore does not seem to be the definition of living.
“I have a 5-year-old daughter,” Gretchem said. “So you never, of course, want to see anything like this happen so close to where you have your child.”
“This is Baltimore City, though. This is what happens out here. It’s unfortunate,” Gretchem added.