President Donald Trump clapped back at Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Sunday, threatening to “send in the troops” to Baltimore in a lengthy social media post.

The outburst saw Trump mock Moore’s offer for him to “walk the streets” of Baltimore, suggest he could pull federal funding for the reconstruction of the Key Bridge, and imply that Moore lied about receiving a Bronze Star for his service in the Army.

“(I)f Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin (Newsom) did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” Trump wrote, using a derogatory nickname for California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. “After only one week, there is NO CRIME AND NO MURDER IN DC! When it is like that in Baltimore, I will proudly “walk the streets” with the failing, because of Crime, Governor of Maryland.”

Trump added that Baltimore is ranked the “4th WORST CITY IN THE NATION IN CRIME AND MURDER,” referring perhaps to U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the “most dangerous places” in America, which ranked Baltimore at No. 4 behind Memphis, Oakland and St. Louis.

“Stop talking and get to work, Wes,” Trump wrote. “I’ll then see you on the streets!!!”

The outburst marks a sharp escalation of the feud between the Republican president and Maryland’s Democratic governor, as Moore has repeatedly described himself as “not the leader of the resistance” so far in Trump’s term — though that relationship could be changing.

Speaking in Baltimore on Thursday, Moore told Trump to “keep our name out of your mouth.”

Trump took aim at Moore’s previous offer for him to “walk the streets” of Baltimore, a city that has seen notable reductions in violent crime in recent years. Trump suggested, without evidence, that Moore “fudges his figures on crime” and credited his deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., with securing stability in the nation’s capital.

“Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him. I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore? As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.'”

Key Bridge, Bronze Star comments

Trump’s online offensive also included a threat to pull federal funding for the reconstruction of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and and mention of Moore’s Bronze Star controversy.

“Also, I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision???” Trump wrote at the end of his initial post.

Federal funds to construct a new Key Bridge were approved late last year, so Trump attempting to withhold them could set up a showdown with Congress.

In a separate post, Trump asked a simple question: “Did Wes Moore, the Governor of Maryland, lie about getting a Bronze Star?”

In 2024, Moore acknowledged he incorrectly claimed to be the recipient of a Bronze Star medal while applying for a White House fellowship in 2006. The governor, who served in Afghanistan, called the situation an “honest mistake” and eventually received the honor last December.

Moore responds

Moore, who appeared on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” Sunday just minutes after Trump’s social media posts, appeared to respond by accusing him of “blissful ignorance” and using dated “tropes” about urban crime.

“The reason that I’ve asked the president to come and join us is that he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these 1980s scare tactics,” Moore said on the program. “While the President is spending time in the Oval Office making jabs and attacks at us, there are actually people on the ground doing the work, who know what support would actually work to continue to bring down crime, but it’s falling on the deaf ears of the President of the United States.”

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(Caleb Townsend contributed to this article.)

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