4 hours ago

The New Democratic Governor Getting Under Donald Trump's Skin

WASHINGTON ― Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has kept a lower profile than most potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders.

Recently, though, the 46-year-old veteran and first Black governor of Maryland has turned up the heat against President Donald Trump, slamming his federal takeover of Washington, D.C., and other cities, mocking him for repeatedly avoiding the military draft during the Vietnam War, and accusing him of politicizing federal disaster assistance by denying aid to areas of western Maryland hit by flooding.

It’s a notable shift for Moore, who previously took a more toned-down approach to the Trump administration like Democratic governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. He joins California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker ― two other possible presidential contenders ― in attacking Trump head-on, including frequently on social media.

On Sunday, Moore drew the president’s ire after he criticized the deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital, as well as Trump’s threats to send more troops into cities like Baltimore and Chicago in the name of a supposed crime emergency.

“For a party that talks about state rights, it’s amazing how they’re having such a big government approach,” Moore said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“The homicide rate in Maryland is down over 20% since I have been the governor, and the last time the homicide rate was this low in Baltimore City, I was not born yet,” he added. “And so the reason that I’ve asked the president to come and join us is because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance ... in these 1980s scare tactics.”

The 79-year-old president then lashed out on Truth Social at what he called Moore’s “nasty and provocative” invitation three days earlier to join him Baltimore for a public safety walk next month.

“As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk,’” Trump wrote before threatening to pull federal funding that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law for the repair of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which collapsed in a catastrophe last year.

On Monday, Trump again whacked Moore in the White House Oval Office, claiming the governor hugged him and complimented him when they met at the Army-Navy football game earlier this year. “He said, ‘Sir, you’re the greatest president of my lifetime.’”

Moore responded with three-letter word online: “lol.”

The governor, a combat veteran who served in the U.S. Army, also tweaked Trump for his four student draft deferments during the Vietnam War due to a diagnosis of bone spurs.

Prominent Democrats who are considering running for the White House in a few years have been eager to capitalize on the Trump administration’s policies in recent months. Newsom, for example, has raised millions of dollars in online donations since he began his campaign to approve mid-decade congressional redistricting in California in hopes of offseting similar Republican efforts in Texas. His social media presence has also attracted millions of eyeballs thanks in large part to a new account that has mimicked Trump’s all-caps posts, triggering Fox News.

For Moore, Trump’s deployment of service members in neighboring Washington, D.C. ― where many of his constituents who are federal workers commute to daily ― is personal.

“Using men and women in uniform as props is absurd and beneath the office of president,” Moore spokesman David Turner told HuffPost.

Trump’s threats against Baltimore and denial of federal aid to parts of Maryland hurt by flooding ― including rural, MAGA-dominant areas of the state ― is another reason why Moore has been more outspoken lately. Flash floods from strong storms in May caused an estimated $33.7 million in damages, not including the damage to peoples’ homes and personal property. The federal government has approved requests this year for disaster relief in states that supported Trump in the 2024 election like West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan.

“You can’t just watch someone punch at your state’s biggest city and not punch back,” Turner said. “In this day and age, if attention is the world’s most important commodity and Trump is master at it, you gotta shape people’s focus. You do that by grabbing people by the lapels, and it requires some level of engagement we haven’t done yet.”