Tuesday on CNN’s “OutFront,” Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) claimed President Donald Trump sending the National Guard into cities was “theatrical,” and thus “beneath the office that he holds.”

Moore said, “The reality is, what the National Guard has been doing has been things like raking mulch and picking up trash and painting fences. And so while the numbers that we have seen in Washington, D.C., they are impressive and they are important, we also know that it’s very closely mirrored to what Baltimore has had during that same period of time.”

He continued, “What we are seeing from the President of the United States is not a crime fighting strategy, it is a performative strategy.”

Moore added, “I want to be very clear to the president, we do not need the National Guard in our cities. We need a serious approach to crime fighting and that is not that. I also have been very clear that we would welcome federal support. I’ve laid out the type of federal supports that would be that would be useful during the president’s proposed budget. He proposed cutting funding for FBI and ATF bureaus within the state of Maryland. It actually would be helpful if we could have more FBI and ATF supports to get these illegal guns out of our neighborhoods and on our streets, that Congress could actually work to make to address the issue of ghost guns and getting these ghost guns out of our neighborhoods, that actually would be helpful. The President of the United States could not cut the $30 million that he’s just cut from violence prevention programs in the state of Maryland. That actually would be helpful. But sending in the National Guard to do municipal policing, something not trained for is something that is deeply theatrical and frankly, beneath the office that he holds.”

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