By JONATHAN J. COOPER and LEAH ASKARINAM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to increase his navy deployments to extra Democratic-led cities, responding to a proposal by Maryland’s governor to hitch him in a tour of Baltimore by saying he would possibly as a substitute “ship within the ‘troops.’”
Final week, Trump stated he was contemplating Chicago and New York for troop deployments much like what he has unleashed on the nation’s capital, the place 1000’s of Nationwide Guard and federal legislation enforcement officers are patrolling the streets.
Trump made the menace to Baltimore in a spat with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who has criticized Trump’s unprecedented flex of federal energy geared toward combatting crime and homelessness in Washington. Moore final week invited Trump to go to his state to debate public security and stroll the streets.
In a Reality Social put up on Sunday, Trump stated Moore requested “in a relatively nasty and provocative tone,” after which raised the specter of repeating the Nationwide Guard deployment he made in Los Angeles over the objections of California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.
“Wes Moore’s file on Crime is a really unhealthy one, until he fudges his figures on crime like most of the different ‘Blue States’ are doing,” Trump wrote, as he cited a pejorative nickname he makes use of often for the California governor. “But when Wes Moore wants assist, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I’ll ship within the ‘troops,’ which is being completed in close by DC, and rapidly clear up the Crime.”
Moore stated he invited Trump to Maryland “as a result of he appears to take pleasure in dwelling on this blissful ignorance” about bettering crime charges in Baltimore. After a spike in the course of the pandemic that matched nationwide traits, Baltimore’s violent crime price has fallen. The 200 homicides reported final 12 months have been down 24% from the prior 12 months and 42% since 2021, in response to metropolis knowledge. Between 2023 and 2024, total violent crime was down practically 8% and property crimes down 20%.
“The president is spending all of his time speaking about me,” Moore stated on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “I’m spending my time speaking concerning the folks I serve.”
Trump is “spouting off a bunch of lies about public security in Maryland,” Moore stated in a fundraising e-mail.
In Washington, the place Trump is surging Nationwide Guard troops and federal legislation enforcement officers, a patchwork of protests popped up all through town over the weekend, whereas some usually bustling corners have been noticeably quiet. In a few of the most populated areas, residents walked by small teams of nationwide guardsmen, usually speaking amongst themselves. Movies of arrests and detainments circulated on social media.
Trump has stated Chicago and New York are more than likely his subsequent targets, eliciting sturdy pushback from Democratic leaders in each states. The Washington Submit reported Saturday that the Pentagon has spent weeks making ready for an operation in Chicago that would come with Nationwide Guard troops and doubtlessly lively responsibility forces.
Requested concerning the Submit report, the White Home pointed to Trump’s earlier feedback discussing his want to increase his use of navy forces to focus on native crime.
“I believe Chicago will probably be our subsequent,” Trump informed reporters on the White Home on Friday, including, “After which we’ll assist with New York.”
Trump has repeatedly described a few of the nation’s largest cities — run by Democrats, with Black mayors and majority-minority populations — as harmful and filthy. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is Black, as is Moore. The District of Columbia and New York even have Black mayors.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, talking throughout a non secular occasion Sunday at Howard College in Washington, stated the Guard’s presence within the nation’s capital was not about crime: “That is about profiling us.”
“That is laced with bigotry and racism,” he later elaborated to reporters. “Not one white mayor has been designated. And I believe it is a civil rights challenge, a race challenge, and a difficulty of D.C. statehood.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, stated there’s no emergency warranting the deployment of Nationwide Guard troops in Chicago.
“Donald Trump is making an attempt to fabricate a disaster, politicize People who serve in uniform, and proceed abusing his energy to distract from the ache he’s inflicting households,” Pritzker wrote on X. “We’ll proceed to comply with the legislation, arise for the sovereignty of our state, and defend Illinoisans.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson stated town doesn’t want “a navy occupation” and would sue to dam one. He stated there was no communication from the White Home a couple of potential navy deployment.
“We’re not going to give up our humanity to this tyrant,” Johnson stated Sunday on MSNBC. “I can let you know this, town of Chicago has a protracted historical past of standing up towards tyranny, resisting those that want to undermine the pursuits of working folks.”
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Cooper reported from Phoenix.
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