President Donald Trump took control of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and mobilized the D.C. National Guard two weeks ago, in response to the capital city’s violent crime rate. Now, the president is warning a blue state mayor to clean up crime in a notoriously violent city or face federal intervention.

Since cracking down on D.C.’s crime, Trump has suggested using similar tactics to curb crime in cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) responded by inviting Trump to join a “public safety walk” through parts of Baltimore “most affected by violent crime,” writing, “Progress requires the right tool for the right mission. Asking the patriotic citizen soldiers of our National Guard to police our cities doesn’t meet that test.”

In a speech in Baltimore, Moore took a less formal tone in addressing the president. “If you are not willing to be part of the solution, keep our names out of your mouth,” the governor said, addressing “anybody, especially in Washington, D.C., who might not hear me.” He went on more pointedly, “Donald Trump, if you are not willing to walk our communities, keep our name out of your mouth.”

Moore continued, “Because if you were willing to visit, if you were willing to spend time, if you were willing to actually walk our communities and walk our streets and not just talk about us from the Oval Office, you would see what we see: one of the greatest cities in the United States of America.”

Trump replied by urging Moore to tackle crime in Maryland, and especially Baltimore, more aggressively, suggesting that the might federalize the National Guard if Moore proved unable to address the issue. “Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. He continued, “I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore? As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.’” Trump noted that Baltimore was recently ranked the fourth most dangerous city in the nation for crime and said that Moore has a “very bad” record dealing with crime.

“But if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” Trump insisted referring to federalizing California’s National Guard earlier in the summer to calm riots and protect federal agents carrying out immigration raids. The president continued, “After only one week, there is NO CRIME AND NO MURDER IN DC! When it is like that in Baltimore, I will proudly ‘walk the streets’ with the failing, because of Crime, Governor of Maryland.” He added, “Stop talking and get to work, Wes. I’ll then see you on the streets!!!”

In a Sunday interview, Moore was asked to explain why he’s “so opposed” to deploying the National Guard to address crime in Baltimore. “One, it is not sustainable. You cannot continue this type of pace of operations, particularly when it’s costing over a million dollars a day in order to do this,” he claimed. Moore continued, “The second, it’s not scalable. You’re not going to be able to do this in every single major American city, particularly when many of the cities that have the highest crime rates are the places that have actually deployed their national guards to Washington, D.C.” He added, “So who’s going to go do the work in their cities?” Currently, Guardsmen from California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas are deployed in Washington, D.C.

“The third, it’s unconstitutional. It’s a direct violation of the 10th Amendment, and for a party that talks about state rights, it’s amazing how they’re having such a big government approach in the way they’re conducting public safety,” Moore continued, referring to the constitutional provision granting to the states all powers not vested in the federal government by the Constitution. The governor continued, “The fourth reason is because it’s deeply disrespectful to the members of the National Guard. As someone who actually deployed overseas and served my country in combat, to ask these men and women to do a job that they’re not trained for is just deeply disrespectful.”

When pressed on his fourth point, Moore claimed that “it is counter to every bit of training that we received. When I joined the military, we joined with a clear intention to fight and win our nation’s wars.” He continued, “The members of our National Guard are trained up to be able to address things like emergency situations, situations where you need a surge of support for traumas and disasters that are happening within individual jurisdictions. That is not this, and this is a direct deflection that the president is authorizing.”

Trump has also offered to mobilize National Guard and military units to address crime spikes in Chicago, among other cities. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) pledged, in an interview on Sunday, to resist any such efforts. “You know, the city of Chicago does not need a military occupied state. That’s not who we are,” the mayor said. He continued, “I commend the work of Mayor Bass, my colleague, and, you know, all the folks in Los Angeles who stood up and fought against this authoritarianism.”

Karen Bass (D), the mayor of Los Angeles, oversaw riots engulf her city for a series of weeks, during which rioters attacked and assaulted federal law enforcement officers. Trump federalized California’s National Guard in response to the riots in order to protect federal agents. Johnson said that he plans to “remain firm” and “take legal action,” adding, “But the people of this city are accustomed to rising up against tyranny. And if that’s necessary, I believe that the people of Chicago will stand firm alongside of me as I work every single day to protect the people of this city.”

“Here’s the bottom line: they don’t have police power. There’s nothing they can do. You know, these are federal troops, they do not go through the training that our police officers go through. So they cannot even enact police authority,” Johnson claimed. He added, “The president has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to, what, arrest nine people in D.C.?” According to U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, the federal crackdown has yielded over 1,000 arrests over the course of two weeks. Johnson continued, “[C]learly he’s demonstrated that he doesn’t have a level of consciousness to understand what it takes to run cities, not to mention an entire country.”

On Friday, Trump singled out Chicago for its high crime rates, suggesting using federal forces to control crime in the city. “Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent,” he said, referring to Johnson. The president continued, “We’ll straighten that one out probably next, that’ll be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough.” He added that Chicagoans are “screaming” for Trump to intervene, joking that women wearing “red hats” are “saying, ‘Please, President Trump! Come to Chicago! Please!’” He continued, “So I think that Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York…”