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Maryland Governor Wes Moore took a page out of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s playbook this week by picking a public fight with President
Donald Trump, challenging him to walk Baltimore’s streets and see the
state’s crime strategy in action.
Like Newsom’s childish provocations of Trump in recent days, Moore’s
invitation was a clear effort by the ambitious 46-year-old to dip his
toe in the waters of Democrats’ wide-open 2028 presidential primary
field. But also like Newsom, Moore ended up only embarrassing himself by drawing more attention to the fact that his administration has been a
testament to the failures of liberal governance.
The spat began earlier this month when Moore launched an attack on
Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. to
combat the capital’s crime epidemic. Trump then responded by floating
the idea of deploying National Guard troops to Baltimore to help address
the city’s decades-long reputation as one of the most dangerous in
America. Baltimore had the third-highest violent crime rate of any city
in the country last year and consistently ranks in the top ten.
Baltimore also had the highest per capita murder rate of any big city in
the United States in 2024.
Moore then pounced on the opportunity to draw attention to himself
during public remarks, demanding that Trump “keep our names out of your
mouth” – despite the fact that he intentionally sparked the feud in the
first place. During a later appearance on CNN, Moore declared that “many
of the comments that are being made from the White House come off as so tone-deaf and so ignorant about fighting crime… it’s because they have
not walked our streets.”
In another interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Moore invited Trump to come
and “learn” about what the state is doing on crime while reiterating his
call for the President to “walk” through Baltimore.
“Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and
provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him,” Trump responded on Truth Social. “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.’”
Trump then issued another post claiming that Moore privately told Trump
he was “the greatest president of my lifetime.” Moore continued the
tit-for-tat by responding with a simple “lol” to Trump’s post on X,
before later confirming to several news outlets that he never said that
to Trump. Subsequent video showed Moore warmly and cordially greeting
Trump ahead of last year’s Army-Navy football game.
The political subtext of the fiery back-and-forth isn’t subtle. Moore’s
row with Trump boosts his national profile, and his rapid-fire media
hits and direct challenges to Trump are a transparent soft launch for a
2028 presidential bid. Moore, like Newsom, recognizes that what the
Democrat base wants most is someone who will “fight” Trump – and so he’s
doing his best to pick all the fights he can.
Moore is even apparently already courting Democrat power brokers to back
him. Actor George Clooney, famous for his liberal activism, told CNN’s
Jake Tapper that he thinks Moore could win the nomination in 2028.
Clearly eager to keep the spotlight on him – and match his emerging
rival Gavin Newsom – Moore also recently announced that he’s actively
weighing a new congressional map that could target Rep. Andy Harris, the
Old Line State’s lone Republican. Additionally, in May, Moore headlined
South Carolina Democrats’ Blue Palmetto Dinner in a classic display of early-state stagecraft.
But much like Gavin Newsom, the more that Wes Moore is in the spotlight,
the more his far-left record gets exposed for the entire country to see.
This spring, for instance, Moore signed a $67 billion tax hike that is effectively the largest tax increase in Maryland history. The package
adds new tax brackets, imposes a two-percent capital gains surcharge on investment income above $350,000, and creates a three-percent sales and
use tax on many data and information-technology services which began
July 1, 2025.
Budget pressure followed that unpopular policy. Moore’s administration
recently announced a statewide hiring freeze and a voluntary buyout
program offering $20,000 to eligible employees to trim payrolls and
close a $121 million gap, confirming the financial unfeasibility of his economic policies.
Unsurprisingly, Maryland’s long-term budget picture remains negative.
The state’s Department of Legislative Services 90-Day Report projects multi-year deficits, a cash shortfall of about $2.95 billion in fiscal
year 2026, and says the structural deficit could approach $6 billion by
fiscal year 2030.
Meanwhile, Moore’s attempts to revive Baltimore’s Red Line, an east-west transit corridor, have been shelved. Federal studies peg it in the multi-billion-dollar range and on a long timeline, meaning years of
planning and early spending before taxpayers get to even use it – much
like Newsom’s ill-fated high-speed rail project in California.
Education remains another glaring failure for Governor Moore. Despite
spending more than ever per student on education, only about a quarter
of Maryland students are proficient in math, and in Baltimore City it’s
closer to one in eight.
What Moore doesn’t seem to realize is that all of these failures, from
sky-high crime rates to ballooning deficits and left-wing pipe dreams,
will follow him into any conversation about the presidency. It’s one
thing to win the national spotlight – it’s another entirely to convince
voters that your record is deserving of the White House.
https://amac.us/newsline/politics/why-maryland-gov-wes-moores-anti-trump- gambit-wont-work/
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