Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says 'disastrous' impact coming to Port of Baltimore, farmers, state economy from Trump tariffs

Candy Woodall, Baltimore Sun on Mar 16, 2025

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Gov. Wes Moore has been leveraging his opportunities on national news to draw attention to what he called the “disastrous” impact to Maryland’s economy in the first two months of the Trump administration.

Moore was asked Sunday morning on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” about President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, when the Port of Baltimore will see impacts on shipping volume, and how the state’s economy will be affected.

“We’re already seeing the impacts of these disastrous and, frankly, not very well-thought-out policies when it comes to tariffs,” Moore said on the show.

He added that tariffs are a tool and accused the president of using them like an ideology — an ideology Moore said is hurting the port, Maryland’s farmers on the Eastern Shore and the state’s economy.

“This lack of predictability, this erratic behavior … and the indecisive decision-making that’s being made is already having a very real impact on cost. It’s having a very real impact on our businesses and our small businesses. It’s having a very real impact on our economic engines and American competitiveness, as well as our national security,” the governor said.

Moore is arguably embroiled in the most difficult moment of his political career thus far. He’s the governor of a state with a $3.3 billion deficit that is seeing its top industries — medicine, education and federal work — get decimated in Trump’s second term.

Trump and one of his top advisers, tech mogul Elon Musk, are on a mission to cut waste, fraud and abuse in government. Huge workforce cuts have had an outsized impact in Maryland, which neighbors the nation’s capital and is home to more than 160,000 federal workers. Moore has previously said the widely quoted 160,000 figure does not include military or federal contractors.

The jobs Maryland is losing are among the highest-paying.

And Trump dealt the state another blow Friday when he doubled down on a campaign position that the FBI headquarters should be in Washington, not Greenbelt, Maryland.

“They were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state,” Trump said. “But that has no bearing on what I’m about to say. We’re going to stop it. I’m not going to let that happen.”

Trump wants a new FBI headquarters to be built at its current location on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington near the Department of Justice, where the president spoke Friday.

Moore said Sunday he learned about it on the news and didn’t receive a call from the White House beforehand. “That goes to show the level of partnership that this administration … would like from our nation’s governors,” he said.

He did not say if he reached out to the White House to try and persuade the administration against taking it out of Maryland.

Moore over the weekend described moving the FBI out of the state as “a reckless move that endangers our national security” and said he would “continue to fight to ensure Maryland is the home of the FBI — for the sake of our people and the sake of our country.”

As the governor navigates the local and national challenges Maryland faces, he is getting criticism from Republicans and business leaders who question his priorities as lawmakers weigh higher taxes and service cuts.

After Moore shared a post on the social media platform X supporting Maryland making the Orange Crush the state’s official drink, Maryland Republicans responded to the post with a question: “Great! What about the proposed $1 Billion Business-to-Business Tax?”

Some businesses have threatened to leave the state over the higher tax.

Moore has said economic growth is his North Star as he tries to attract more businesses to Maryland. Republicans, like state Sen. Justin Ready, have noted the business tax doesn’t line up with that.

“We can’t grow Maryland’s economy if we’re punishing the people who are the job creators,” he said in a video statement Thursday.

Moore hasn’t said whether he would veto the business tax if it reaches his desk.

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