Posted on 09/04/25
| News Source: Maryland Matters
Annapolis, MD - Sept. 4, 2025 - Gov. Wes Moore (D) said Wednesday he would be willing to accept help from the federal government to fight crime in Baltimore, just not through the deployment of National Guard troops as President Donald Trump (R) has repeatedly threatened.
Moore was responding to Tuesday comments by Trump during a rambling news conference in which he called Baltimore and Chicago crime [...] that needed the presence of federal troops, a deployment he insists he has the authority to order, despite governors and a federal court saying otherewise.
Moore and Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott (D) have said repeatedly that rates of homicides and gun violence are declining in the city, but admit there is still work to be done.
Moore said Wednesday using the National Guard to fight crime, as Trump wants to do, would be “performative” and “ridiculous.” He said other federal agencies, such as the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, make more sense for crime-fighting.
“If you want to have a serious conversation about things that the federal government could provide that could be helpful, it could be FBI and ATF support … Those are always useful, and we’re still working in partnership with them,” Moore said in response to reporters’ questions at an unrelated event in Columbia.
“But I’m not going to do things just because it makes people feel good or because we think that people walking around in military fatigues and a long gun somehow makes communities safe,” he said. “Having members of the Guard picking up trash and raking mulch is not a useful spread of resources.”