Dem governors suddenly crack down on crime as Trump’s National Guard threats loom

A handful of Democratic governors are cracking down on crime as President Donald Trump threatens to send the National Guard into blue cities struggling with persistent crime waves that have left residents killed or injured and businesses shuttered. 

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) — who has traded barbs with Trump over objecting to the president’s calls to activate the National Guard in the long crime-riddled city — announced on Friday that the Maryland State Police will bolster the Baltimore Police Department’s efforts to crack down on crime. 

“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 on Friday after ordering state police to assist its Baltimore law enforcement counterparts. “If one person does not feel safe in their neighborhood, that is one too many.”

Trump is in the midst of a national crime crackdown that began in Washington, D.C., in August, when he federalized the city under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital’s police force for 30 days. Trump has since floated deploying the National Guard to crime-riddled cities such as Baltimore and Chicago to install law and order. 

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Democratic state and local leaders, however, have frequently balked at Trump’s crackdown as a form of “authoritarianism.” 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, for example, declared in August that “we cannot incarcerate our way out of violence,” while claiming the U.S. has an “addiction” to jailing criminals. Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has characterized a potential National Guard presence on the streets as unnecessary, citing Chicago’s slowing crime trends since the wildly violent 2020 era and promoting state investments in community violence intervention programs. 

Amid left-wing outrage over Trump’s crime crackdown plans, some Democratic governors have taken additional steps at the state level to snuff out crime in violent jurisdictions, Fox News Digital found. 

“First, Democrats claimed there was no crime problem and mocked the American people for being concerned about their safety. But now that they’ve seen the tremendous results delivered by President Trump, they’re eager to mimic his success — the reality is, the American people benefit when the President’s agenda is implemented. Let this be a lesson to all Democrats, President Trump was right about everything!” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday morning when asked about a trio of Democratic governors who have announced crime crackdown initiatives in recent days. 

Just days after Trump federalized Washington, D.C.’s police department, Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency in Rio Arriba County, the city of Española and local Pueblo communities in response to a “significant surge in violent crime, drug trafficking, and public safety threats that have overwhelmed local resources.”

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 “We are making every resource available to support our local partners on the ground and restore public safety and stability to these areas that have been hardest hit by this crisis,” Lujan Grisham said in an Aug. 13 press release. 

The state of emergency authorized up to $750,000 in “emergency funding for the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management” to coordinate response efforts in the affected areas, and will stay in effect until the funds are spent, or the additional resources are no longer needed. 

Lujan Grisham’s decision followed the Democratic governor slamming Trump for federalizing D.C., calling it: “executive overreach in Washington [that] sets a dangerous precedent and undermines safety in our nation’s capital.” 

Lujan Grisham’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter. 

In California longtime Trump political foe Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s highway patrol would deploy new “crime suppression” teams to the state’s massive cities seeing crime trends, including San Diego, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area. The announcement followed a similar crime crackdown initiative in Oakland, Bakersfield and San Bernardino, the governor said at the time. 

“These operations will be targeted,” Newsom said at a news conference back in August when making the announcement. “They’ll be data-driven.”

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Newsom’s office pointed to data showing crime overall dropped in California in 2024 and that CHP’s increased presence in the new jurisdictions was part of the governor’s “next phase of his crime-fighting efforts.”

“While the Trump administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them and delivering real results. With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down,” Newsom said in a statement of the initiative. 

Newsom is among vocal Democrats who have slammed Trump over his crime crackdown, including excoriating the administration in June, when federal law enforcement officials and the National Guard converged on Los Angeles to specifically detain and deport illegal immigrants. A federal judge ruled earlier in September that the Trump administration violated federal laws by sending the National Guard to LA in June — a ruling that affects only the state and not other states. 

“Today, the court sided with democracy and the Constitution. No president is a king — not even Trump — and no president can trample a state’s power to protect its people,” Newsom said following the judge’s ruling. 

The Supreme Court ultimately lifted restrictions on ICE raids in LA on Monday. 

When asked about bolstering CHP presence amid Trump’s national crime crackdown, Newsom’s office said “there is no correlation between California’s public safety investments and Trump unnecessarily sending in the National Guard to Washington, D.C.”

The state has invested $1.7 billion since 2019 to boost public safety, including record funding in 2023 to combat organized retail crime with a 310% increase in enforcement operations, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office told Fox Digital. 

“I know the issue of reduction in crime is an important issue, but I want to make this crystal clear,” Newsom told the media in August of public safety plans. “It’s never good enough. Good enough, never is. Success is not a place or definition. Success is a direction. There is no having made it as it relates to the issue of crime suppression. That’s why in California, we continue to build on not just these partnerships, but over $1.7 billion of resources that we have provided under our public safety plan in this state since 2019.”

Back in Maryland, Moore slammed Trump over federalizing D.C., calling it “deeply dangerous” before the pair got into spats over Baltimore’s safety, which included Trump pouring cold water on Moore’s potential future presidential run and threatening to pull federal funding to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge after it collapsed in 2024. 

The Democratic governor sent a letter to Trump in August inviting him to tour Baltimore, which the president rebuffed while telling Moore to “clean up this crime disaster.”

Moore has defended that crime trends show Baltimore’s safety has been increasing in recent years, including when announcing that state police will assist Baltimore police in public safety. 

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“Because even though Baltimore City is seeing some of the most impressive crime drops in the entire country, the work is far from over. We can, and will, do more on public safety, because our people deserve nothing less,” Moore said on Friday in a press release announcing the state police and Maryland Transportation Authority Police will aid Baltimore police with public safety efforts. 

The additional police presence will target high risk areas, and will “focus on providing a highly visible law enforcement presence to deter and prevent crime,” according to the governor’s press release. 

Trump has celebrated the federalization of Washington, D.C.’s police force as a success, including notching zero homicides across a 13-day period in August, and the arrests of more than 2,000 suspects. The president has also lauded Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for her assistance with the effort. 

“We don’t have a crime problem in Washington anymore,” Trump told reporters earlier in September of the crackdown. “And the mayor has been very helpful.”