President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Baltimore, saying the Maryland city is “out of control” and offering to “quickly clean up the crime.” The remarks, posted on his Truth Social account, came after Democratic Governor Wes Moore invited him to join a public-safety walk through Baltimore in September. Trump said he would prefer that Moore first “clean up this crime disaster,” and warned he could withhold federal money previously committed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a $1.9 billion project launched after the span collapsed in 2024. Moore rejected the idea of outside troops, calling such a move unconstitutional and noting that Maryland’s homicide rate has fallen more than 20 percent during his tenure; city data show Baltimore homicides are down 23.6 percent so far this year. FBI statistics for 2024 still ranked Baltimore with the nation’s fourth-highest murder rate at 35.2 per 100,000 residents. The governor said local and federal law-enforcement partnerships—not military deployments—are driving the recent improvement. Trump’s threat would expand a strategy he has already used in Washington, D.C., where roughly 1,900 Guard members have been patrolling since mid-August, and in Los Angeles, which saw about 4,000 Guard personnel in June to assist immigration operations. The president said Chicago is “probably next,” and defense officials have acknowledged contingency planning for that city. Democratic leaders in Illinois and New York have vowed to oppose any federal troop deployments, arguing the White House is politicizing public-safety concerns.