Democratic governors across the country are rolling out their own crime crackdowns, even as they denounce President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy the National Guard into cities with rising violence. The state-level maneuvers reflect both political calculation and public pressure, as Democratic leaders can no longer hide that their policies have increased crime.
In Maryland, for example, Governor Wes Moore announced on September 5 that state troopers would be dispatched to bolster the Baltimore Police Department, reported Fox News. Moore, who has clashed with Trump over the city’s trajectory, described the move as necessary despite his opposition to Trump’s plan to federalize policing. “We are proud of the progress that we’ve been able to make, and we’re all very, very concerned about how much work still needs to happen,” Moore said, adding that even one resident feeling unsafe is unacceptable. Trump has threatened to cut federal aid for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge unless Moore accepts federal intervention to help crack down on criminal violence.
On the West Coast, Governor Gavin Newsom has launched “crime suppression” teams from the California Highway Patrol into Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento. At an August press conference, Newsom called the initiative targeted and data-driven, underscoring the $1.7 billion his administration has invested in public safety since 2019. He pointed to a 310 percent increase in enforcement actions against organized retail theft in 2023 as evidence of progress. Newsom’s measures come after a federal judge ruled Trump’s June deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles unlawful—a ruling the Supreme Court later undercut by loosening restrictions on federal immigration operations in California.
In New Mexico, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency in August for Española, Rio Arriba County, and nearby Pueblo communities, citing a sharp rise in violent crime and narcotics trafficking. Her order freed $750,000 for local law enforcement. Grisham, once a fierce critic of Trump’s federalization of Washington, D.C.’s police, defended her own action as state-level necessity rather than executive overreach.
The White House, meanwhile, insists Democrats are merely following Trump’s lead. Since Trump seized control of Washington, D.C.’s police in August under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, federal officials boast of results: more than 2,000 arrests and a 13-day homicide-free stretch. The move has worked so well that the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, has praised the president and asked her police departments to work with the White House.
