President Donald Trump threatened to “rethink” funds the federal government sent Baltimore to repair a massive bridge that collapsed last year, making the comments after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told him to visit the city or “keep our name out of your mouth.”
“I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision???” Trump wrote at the end of a post on Truth Social calling Baltimore “out of control” and “crime ridden.” He also threatened to send the military into the city to “clean up” crime – like his ongoing deployment of National Guard troops to Washington.
The pair have fought in recent days over Trump’s characterizations of Baltimore as overrun by crime and Moore’s criticism of the police and military crackdown on Washington. In an Aug. 21 letter, Moore invited Trump to attend a Baltimore “public safety walk” in September to “discuss strategies for effective public safety policy.”
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“Donald Trump, if you are not willing to walk our communities, keep our name out of your mouth,” he said at an event that day.
Trump announced on Aug. 11 he would seize control of Washington’s police department and send hundreds of troops to Washington in response to what he has claimed is a wave of crime in the nation’s capital. He also called Baltimore “so far gone” and threatened to deploy troops to other Democratic-run cities like Chicago.
While Baltimore has been plagued historically by high violent crime rates, the city’s homicide rates have dropped significantly in recent years – by 40% from 2019 to 2024, according to a Council on Criminal Justice report. Homicides this year are down 23% and auto theft is down by 34%, per police data released in July.
Crews are in the process of demolishing remaining parts of the collapsed Baltimore bridge.
Trump during his second term has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funds from Democratic-run cities and states. On Aug. 22, a federal judge blocked him from withholding federal funding from dozens of sanctuary cities, including Baltimore and Los Angeles, over refusing to cooperate with some immigration pushes.
New Baltimore bridge still years from completion
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, a massive Baltimore thoroughfare, collapsed into the Patapsco River in March of 2024 after a cargo ship lost power and plowed into the bridge. Six people were killed after they plunged into the water.
While the shipping channel has since reopened, the new bridge planned in its place won’t be finished until 2028 and could cost as much as $1.9 billion. The demolition of parts of the destroyed old bridge is still in process.
After former President Joe Biden‘s administration released an initial $60 million in emergency funds in the days following the disaster, a stopgap spending bill passed in December authorized federal funds to cover the cost of the replacement.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump threatens to ‘rethink’ Baltimore bridge funds over Wes Moore row