Maryland Gov. Wes Moore rejects Trump plan on crime, approves $15 million in Baltimore grants

Sam Janesch, The Baltimore Sun on Aug 27, 2025

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BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore pushed back against President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Baltimore in a different forum Wednesday — arguing that millions of dollars in new grants for violence intervention, housing and economic development work in the city are ways the state is taking action.

The governor and the rest of the Maryland Board of Public Works approved over $15 million to Baltimore community organizations during an ongoing war of words between Moore and President Donald Trump over the best ways to reduce crime. As Trump is using the National Guard — which is also funded by taxpayers — to patrol the streets in Washington, D.C., Moore has argued that funding community-based initiatives and adjusting specific crime policies, like gun control, is more effective. The grants on Wednesday were among millions of dollars in additional new funding for both for-profit companies and nonprofits — some of which was designated by the General Assembly earlier this year — and comes as The Baltimore Sun tracks how much the state spends on nonprofits.

“There are a lot of people right now who have Baltimore on their mind. There’s a lot of people right now who are trying to downplay and disrespect Baltimore for their own political gain because they’d rather talk about Baltimore than actually do anything to support Baltimore,” Moore said. “I respect people who are willing to actually get into the work and lift up communities instead of people who use high perches to look down on them.”

Moore’s reference to Trump — who has spent days calling Baltimore a “hellhole” and “deathbed” while targeting Moore directly — came as the governor and the rest of the Maryland Board of Public Works approved nearly $6.1 million for the community group We Our Us and $9.45 million for a variety of nonprofit organizations working on projects in the city.

We Our Us provides mentoring services to boys and young men who are considered high risk for committing violent crime. Its contract with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services comes two days after Moore shouted-out the group on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”

The governor lauded the organization in both instances as an effective, community-led effort to combat the type of crime that Trump has claimed is rampant in Baltimore and other Democratic-led cities.

He said at the meeting Wednesday in Annapolis that “our friends in the White House” are seemingly “looking at violence as a laugh track or looking at violence as a moment for political opportunism.” We Our Us is instead “actually focusing on what’s making people safe inside our communities,” Moore said.

The grants to community organizations, meanwhile, are part of the Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative designed to assist local development plans.

Among the grants to Baltimore City recipients were $3 million to ReBUILD Metro for the Machine Works business hub project in East Baltimore, $1.5 million to the same organization for its vacant home revitalization work, and $2 million to the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore to build a new “strategic operations center.”

Comptroller Brooke Lierman, a former state delegate representing Baltimore, also referenced Trump’s comments while approving the grants.

“Really investing in communities by revitalizing properties, rehabbing these vacant homes, rebuilding wealth in the city is a much better use of our precious tax dollars than deploying armed forces,” Lierman said.

Trump has threatened to send National Guard members to Baltimore and other cities like he’s done this month in Washington, D.C.

Moore pushed back Wednesday, as he has repeatedly, by pointing to the decreasing rates of homicides and other violent crimes in Baltimore since he took office. Mayor Brandon Scott, State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and Moore have all taken some level of credit for the progress, including the governor’s frequent touting of state-level grants like those he approved Wednesday.

“We want to make sure we’re doing our part to support the really important work that’s happened,” Moore said. “We’ve seen that collectively and working together we’re actually breaking the back of violent crime in our state.”

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