Gov. Wes Moore said he left a White House meeting on Friday with President Donald Trump and nearly every other governor “more determined than ever” to defend Maryland against the president’s actions.

“I’ve come back from Washington with no illusion about what kind of partnership that this administration is trying to forge with our nation’s governors,” Moore said Monday after multiple days of meetings in Washington, D.C.

The Democratic governor’s comments came after a few weeks in which he’s increasingly warned about the risks of Trump’s moves to fire federal workers and withhold funding. But they also mark some of his strongest statements yet after spending most of the time since Trump’s election saying he hoped to have a working relationship with the new administration.

He told reporters at the State House that his conversations with Trump’s cabinet secretaries and other high-ranking officials in the last week were productive, even as they sometimes disagreed. The mood changed, however, when Trump made his appearance, he said.

“Where the meeting went off the rails was when the president of the United States walked in,” Moore said. “That’s when you just realized that this was not going to be a substantive conversation. This was going to be an hour-long diatribe of conspiracy theories and attacks on my colleagues.”

Moore said that instead of discussing policy issues like housing and affordability, the conversation diverged into “personal grievances.”

“I heard a person stand there and say that ‘I won. I’m now a three-time elected president of the United States,'” Moore said, referring to Trump’s repeated false claims that he won the 2020 election in addition to the 2016 and 2024 elections. “That’s not helping anybody.”

Moore did not speak with or have any personal interaction with Trump, who sparred publicly with another Democratic governor, Janet Mills of Maine.

“You’d better comply,” Trump told Mills when discussing an executive order aimed at barring transgender athletes from playing in girls’ and women’s sports. “Otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding.”

Mills, seated in the State Dining Room with the other governors, responded, “We’ll see you in court.”

Though Moore was not singled out in the meeting like Mills, he doubled down afterward on using every available legal tool to push back when he believes it’s necessary.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has been active so far, joining lawsuits to combat Trump’s moves to slash the federal workforce — which could have an outsized impact in Maryland — end birthright citizenship and more. Moore said he would consider increasing the attorney general’s resources for those efforts, though he said Brown’s office is currently well-funded.

He said he would also use executive orders and actions to limit what he said are the “cruel” and economically damaging results of Trump’s decisions.

“There’s this ‘ready, fire, aim’ mentality that takes place with DOGE that just makes no sense,” Moore said, referring to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s steps to lay off thousands of government workers.

“Frankly, some of the moves that have been made, I don’t fundamentally disagree with them on the surface,” he continued. “However, the way they are being done is arbitrary. It’s cruel. And, frankly, it’s hindering our national security and it’s hindering our business prospects.”

About 160,000 federal civilian workers live in Maryland. Some of the thousands working at agencies like the Social Security Administration headquarters in Baltimore County have spoken out about their fears to essential government services if the workforce is reduced and Musk accesses beneficiaries’ personal information.

The Maryland Department of Labor, meanwhile, is preparing for an influx of unemployment assistance claims.

Moore began speaking more forcefully against Trump earlier this month, saying it’d been “almost impossible to prepare” for the barrage of executive actions.

The latest meeting with the governors highlighted not only those flurry of actions but also Trump’s threats when critics speak out against him.

“Enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be an elected official afterwards,” Trump told Mills during the confrontation.

Later that day, the U.S. Department of Education said it was initiating an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over the issue of transgender athletes.

Beyond the threats to federal workers, Maryland could face significantly more financial challenges if Trump continues his attempts to withhold already-approved funding or if he and Republican leaders in Congress reduce other funding streams through the budget process. Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said recently that roughly $900 million to $1.2 billion could be added to the already $3 billion state budget deficit if, for example, the federal government shifts more costs associated with Medicaid to the states.

Trump and Musk have said their goal is to cut waste and fraud, though news organizations have found their claims of fraud found already to be overestimated. Trump has continued to claim, for instance, that $100 million in taxpayer money went to buy condoms in Gaza despite Musk acknowledging that it was a mistake.

“Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” Trump posted Saturday on his Truth Social site.

Moore said he’s still interested in finding common ground where possible and that his team has had “very, very helpful” conversations with some cabinet secretaries. However, he did not detail those conversations Monday.

Still, when asked if he’d personally asked Trump any questions or had other direct interactions with him, he said he did not think collaboration was the president’s goal.

“I’m realizing that wasn’t the point … I actually think chaos is the point,” he said.

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