Maryland Gov. Wes Moore blasted President Donald Trump’s social media remarks about the National Guard on Sunday, calling them both a “threat” and “embarrassing.”
During an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker asked Moore about Trump’s latest post aimed at Chicago, in which the president wrote:
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning and Chicago about to find out why it is called the Department of War.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker had already labeled the message a threat, and Welker asked Moore if he agreed.
“I call it a threat. I would call it embarrassing and performative,” Moore responded.
The Maryland governor then mocked the idea that National Guard deployments under Trump had curbed crime, arguing that their work had focused on minor tasks rather than law enforcement.
“When people talk about how we watched a decrease because of the National Guard, let’s be clear,” Moore said. “The National Guard is responsible during this occupation for 744 cubic yards of mulch spread, 886 bags of trash collected, 270 feet of fence painted. You know what we don’t have stats on? How many guns has the National Guard seized? How many drug busts has the National Guard done?”
Welker countered by pointing out that crime in Washington, D.C., has dropped under the Guard’s presence. Moore pushed back, noting that Baltimore has seen similar decreases in crime without calling in federal forces.
“If you look at the crime numbers in Baltimore, they’re down the same percentage,” Moore said. “And we did not have to ask citizen soldiers to give up their lives or ask the American people to pay well over a million dollars a day to have fences painted.”
