WASHINGTON: Donald Trump threatened to deploy National Guard troops Sunday to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as the US president seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration.
The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage.
Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing.
In June he controversially ordered nearly 5,000 troops to Los Angeles — ostensibly to quell protests against immigration enforcement raids — triggering ferocious opposition from California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential hopeful.
And US media is reporting that the Trump administration also is planning an unprecedented deployment of thousands of National Guard personnel to Chicago, the country’s third-largest city, prompting vocal pushback from Democrats there.
As for Baltimore, “if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, using a derogatory nickname.
Trump’s feud with Moore, who is Black, appeared to escalate dramatically this week, with the governor assailing Trump’s provocative suggestion of deploying troops in Maryland and Trump calling Moore “nasty” and threatening to revoke federal funds to help fix a collapsed bridge.
On Sunday, Moore told CNN he had invited Trump to walk the streets of Baltimore with him so the governor could counter “this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these 1980 scare tactics” used by the president.
“Hey Donald, we can get you a golf cart if that makes things easier,” Moore needled the 79-year-old Trump on X.
Trump for his part said he would “much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk,’” as he cited Moore’s “very bad” record on crime.
Moore said Maryland’s homicide rate has dropped more than 20 percent since he has been governor, “and the last time the homicide rate was this low in Baltimore City, I was not born yet.”
Moore, 46, is a US Army veteran, best-selling author, and the third African-American person elected governor of a US state.
The Pentagon meanwhile refused to confirm reports that Chicago would soon receive troops.
Trump had said Friday that Chicago and New York — major Democratic-led cities — would receive National Guard deployments similar to Washington.
“We’re going to make our cities very, very safe,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, strongly rejected the idea.
“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are trying to paint their party as one of ‘law and order,’” Pritzker posted on X. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Chicago recorded 573 homicides in 2024, according to city police, eight percent lower than the year before.
Trump clashes with Democrats as he expands National Guard plans
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Trump clashes with Democrats as he expands National Guard plans
- Trump had said Friday that Chicago and New York — major Democratic-led cities — would receive National Guard deployments similar to Washington
Trump says Zelensky ‘isn’t ready’ yet to accept US-authored proposal to end Russia-Ukraine war
- Trump said he was “disappointed” and suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward
- He also claimed Russia is “fine with it” even though Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable
KYIV, Ukraine: President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “isn’t ready” to sign off on a US-authored peace proposal aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump was critical of Zelensky after US and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the US administration’s proposal. But in an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn’t,” Trump claimed in an exchange with reporters before taking part in the Kennedy Center Honors. The president added, “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it. His people love it it. But he isn’t ready.”
To be certain, Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t publicly expressed approval for the White House plan. In fact, Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable, even though the original draft heavily favored Moscow.
Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelensky since riding into a second White House term insisting that the war was a waste of US taxpayer money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to a now nearly four-year conflict he says has cost far too many lives.
Zelensky said Saturday he had a “substantive phone call” with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by US and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Trump’s criticism of Zelensky came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russia’s Tass news agency.
Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision.
“There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he said, adding that Russia hopes this would lead to “further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlement.”
The document released Friday by the White House said the US wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core US interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”
Speaking on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 meters.”
He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service. It needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Kellogg, who is due to leave his post in January, was not present at the talks in Florida.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelensky in London on Monday.
As the three days of talks wrapped up, Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least four people in Ukraine.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
Three people were killed and 10 others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
