Nationwide — Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s latest remarks, labeling the city “so far gone” on crime. Scott says Baltimore is actually experiencing its safest period in more than half a century, with historic drops in homicides and shootings. The comments came after Trump, during a Monday press conference, announced the deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and claimed the federal government had taken over the city’s police department to combat “crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor.” He cited Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York as crime-ridden cities, singling out Baltimore and Oakland as being beyond recovery.
CBS News reports that the president’s heightened focus on crime in D.C. follows an alleged assault on a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer earlier this month. Trump warned in a Truth Social post that he would “federalize” the city if local leaders didn’t “get their act together.” His broader crime rhetoric, however, has again brought Baltimore into the national spotlight — and sparked a sharp rebuttal from its mayor.
Scott, who has repeatedly touted the city’s crime reductions, responded on social media Monday by accusing Trump of using Baltimore as a political distraction from what he described as the “roller coaster” U.S. economy caused by the president’s own policies. “Baltimore is the safest it’s been in over 50 years,” Scott wrote, noting homicides are down 28% in 2025 and that this year’s numbers are the lowest on record. Baltimore police also report a 24.3% drop in homicides and a 19.5% drop in nonfatal shootings compared to the same period in 2024, with juvenile killings at their lowest in over a decade.
At a recent National Night Out event, Scott acknowledged the city still has work to do, pointing out that Baltimore’s 84 homicides so far this year remain “one too many” but still represent the lowest count at this point in any year on record. He credited the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which has expanded into South Baltimore, for much of the progress. Community leaders like Mark Cannon of We Are Us remain cautious, stressing the need for more resources and accountability, and some neighborhoods, such as Federal Hill, have reported recent crime increases.
This is not the first time Trump has targeted Baltimore. In March, he criticized the city’s schools, claiming 40% of high schools had no students capable of “basic mathematics.” Local outlets clarified he was referring to Maryland’s Algebra I exam, which tests far more advanced concepts. Scott fired back at the time, noting Baltimore City’s math scores had improved five times faster than the state average and calling on the administration to help rather than “treat the Department of Education like the WWE Royal Rumble.”
Maryland Governor Wes Moore also weighed in on Trump’s latest actions, calling the National Guard deployment to D.C. “deeply dangerous” and “lacking seriousness.” Moore accused the president of using military personnel as political pawns and ignoring real solutions. He pointed to Maryland’s own success in cutting violent crime, saying the state has seen one of the largest declines in the country over the past two and a half years, with homicides down more than 20% since his inauguration.