The war of words between Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) and President Donald Trump continued Monday after the president aired “an imaginary conversation” between the pair.
Trump and Maryland Governor Moore's feud escalates: The president's bizarre Oval Office claim of Governor Moore praising him as "the greatest president of my lifetime" following a brief Army-Navy game meeting sparks a social media showdown. Moore's "lol" response and subsequent jabs at "President Bone Spurs" add fuel to the fire, intensifying their ongoing war of words over crime and military service
Moore responded on X, formerly Twitter, by simply writing “lol” above a clip of Trump making the allegation.
“Keep telling yourself that, Mr. President,” he added.
It comes amid a dayslong back-and-forth that followed Trump threatening to extend his crime crackdown beyond Washington, D.C., and send soldiers to other U.S. cities, including Baltimore.
In a speech last week, Moore suggested the president visit Maryland’s biggest city and “walk our streets and not just talk about us from the Oval Office,” as he touted cutting the violent crime rate and reducing the number of vacant homes throughout the city.
“Donald Trump, if you are not willing to walk our communities, keep our name out of your mouth,” Moore said Thursday.
Moore’s comments appeared to catch Trump’s attention, prompting the president over the weekend to question the former U.S. Army officer’s military service.
“Did Wes Moore, the Governor of Maryland, lie about getting a Bronze Star?” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website on Sunday.
In one follow-up, Moore jabbed at “President Bone Spurs,” a reference to a disputed diagnosis the president used to avoid military service during the Vietnam War.
On Monday, Trump returned to his new nemesis during wide-ranging comments to reporters as he signed executive orders from the White House.
The president said he felt Moore’s invitation to visit Baltimore was “derogatory,” before beginning his disputed claim.
“I met him at the Army-Navy game,” Trump said. “They said, ‘Oh, there’s Governor Moore. He’d love to see you.’ He came over to me, hugged me, shook my hand. You were there [nodding toward unidentified person]. He said, ‘Sir, you’re the greatest president of my lifetime.’ I said, ‘It’s really nice that you say that. I’d love you to say it publicly, but I don’t think you can do that.’”
He added: “And then every time I see him on television, he’s knocking the hell out of me. But that’s all right, it’s called politics.”
Footage of Trump and Moore meeting at the game, from on an episode of Fox Nation’s “The Art of the Surge” and played by Fox News on Monday, suggests a friendliness between the pair. But the Maryland politician does not state the words the president claims.
Moore later appeared on WBAL Radio and called Trump’s claim a “distraction” from the spiraling cost of living and his threats to cut spending locally.
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“I’m a person who takes my integrity very seriously,” Moore said. “And I spent the last six months before the election campaigning as to why I did not think he should be the next president of the United States. So when I say that that conversation never happened … that imaginary conversation never happened … I mean, that conversation never happened.”
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