Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2025
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by Sarah Katherine Sisk
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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.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
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