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Maryland Governor Says Trump Is 'Obsessed With Me' After Debunking 'Greatest' Claim

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Tuesday that President Donald Trump “seems to be obsessed with me” as he again mocked the president’s claim that Moore called him “the greatest president of my lifetime.”

Appearing on CNN, the Democratic governor derided Trump’s “absolutely comical” recollection of their brief meeting at the Army-Navy game in December, as he noted how the president habitually refers to Moore’s looks.

Trump made the since-debunked claim from the Oval Office on Monday.

Footage of Trump and Moore meeting at the game, from 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 there is no moment in which Moore calls Trump the greatest anything.

Moore initially responded to Trump’s claim on X, formerly Twitter, by simply writing “lol.” “Keep telling yourself that, Mr. President,” he added.

But Trump repeated the allegation on Tuesday during a three-hour Cabinet meeting, while also doubling down on his view that Baltimore, Maryland’s largest city, is a “hellhole.”

Trump also scoffed at Moore’s apparent presidential aspirations. “Has anyone heard of him? He’s another hopeful for president. I don’t think so,” Trump said.

Their feud was prompted by Trump’s threats to extend his crime crackdown beyond Washington, D.C., and send soldiers to other U.S. cities, including Baltimore.

In turn, Moore invited the president to the Maryland city to “walk our streets,” as he touted cutting the violent crime rate and reducing the number of vacant homes throughout the city.

In between the back-and-forth over crime, Trump questioned the former U.S. Army officer’s military service, prompting Moore to take aim at “President Bone Spurs,” a reference to a disputed diagnosis the president used to avoid military service during the Vietnam War.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and President Donald Trump

On CNN’s “The Source” on Tuesday, host Kaitlan Collins asked Moore about Trump’s derogatory comments about Baltimore.

He replied: “The president seems to be obsessed with me. Today he called me a ‘beauty.’ And when I first met him, he just talked about how I was a good-looking guy. And now he just continues to make statements that are just flat-out false about our state’s largest city.”

Moore was also asked about the claim that he believes Trump is the “greatest president” after the Fox News clip of their brief exchange was played for Collins’ audience.

“I know this is breaking news to everybody, but the president is not telling the truth,” Moore said.

“What happened right there was when I first met the president, and then after he started talking about how I’m a good-looking guy, I started talking about the importance of the Key Bridge and how this state put on a case study on how to recover in times of crisis, that we’re able to bring closure to all six families, to the individuals who were lost that night on the Key Bridge,” Moore continued, referencing Baltimore’s Key Bridge, which collapsed in March 2024, killing six people.

“And when they told us it was going to take 11 months to clear the federal channel, that this state got it done in 11 weeks, and we started talking about how it was going to get done,” the governor added.

He went on to explain he declined an invitation to sit with the president at the Army-Navy college football game, effectively clearing up whether there was further interaction.

“I told him, I said, ‘I’m good. I have my own seats.’ And I went to go sit with the cadets and midshipmen. So no, I never called him ‘the greatest.’ And I just find it absolutely comical that that was the way he remembered that conversation,” he said.