ANNAPOLIS– On its face, Gov. Moore’s recent trade mission to Japan and Korea was nothing unusual. Maryland’s governors have long embarked on missions overseas to establish economic ties.
Moore, though, said that his role as Maryland’s chief executive has changed with what he refers to as the chaos coming from Washington. The recent trip, planned before Trump took office, offered a clear picture as to how.
In the face of Trump’s “erratic tariff policies,” Moore said, the mission became an opportunity for the state to build relationships independent of Washington.
“I think that one of the things that was really encouraging from the folks in both Japan and Korea was that, in Maryland, what they found was stability,” Moore said in an exclusive interview with Capital News Service in the wake of his trip. “In Maryland, what they found was a confidence in the decision making.”
Moore’s words were purposeful. As a leader, he wants to be an answer, a stark contrast, to what he sees in Washington.
“I think that, actually, the best thing you can do in a moment of chaos is to show calm and to show courage,” Moore said. “And that’s the type of leadership that I want to be able to provide.”
Maryland has a chance to “show that there is a different way,” Moore says, referencing the tax reform and budget cuts that he achieved during the legislative session.
“We’re actually decreasing the size of the general fund, decreasing the size of state government and producing outsized results. “And so I think the thing that I want people to know about our leadership is that we are calm, is that we are steady, and that we actually produce results that people are looking for in their lives.”
The jury, though, remains out on what those results look like in practice.
Moore spent much of the 2025 legislative session selling his tax plan to Marylanders. The idea was almost too good to be true. He said that the vast majority of the state’s residents will either see a tax cut or no change at all.
But, throughout the session, that concept took a beating. Moore and the legislature added many new taxes and fees. Some were extremely unpopular, leading many to wonder if the budget actually makes living in Maryland, already an expensive proposition, any more affordable.
Producing results will be even more challenging under a Trump administration that is far less likely to lend a helping hand than its predecessor. Maryland has long been dependent on the federal government as a pillar of its economy, but if early results are any indication, those dollars will not be as free-flowing going forward.
The last few months, and the months and years that lie ahead, represent one of the first true political challenges that Moore will face after a relatively charmed first two years under a friendly Biden administration. It represents a test for the first-term governor, a proving ground for his political present and future.
But Moore is nothing if not aspirational.
Three months ago, staring down a $3 billion deficit and a looming Trump administration that many projected would be unfriendly to deep-blue Maryland, the state’s governor maintained that this would be “Maryland’s decade,” and that growth would be his and the state’s “North Star.”
As the Trump administration proved itself to be unfriendly to the state, Moore’s optimistic ambition persisted. As measures such as culling the federal workforce and announcing an intent to prevent the FBI headquarters moving to Maryland came through, Moore called for lawmakers to “confront crisis with courage.”
The governor’s brand of hopeful politics, and his emphasis on putting Maryland and its residents over party allegiance, has endeared him to many in his state. Even through an extremely challenging legislative session, people lined up after events just for a moment, a picture or a handshake with Moore.
That magnetism has forced Moore into the national spotlight. As a Democratic Party still reeling from a massive material defeat looks to fill a leadership void, Moore’s name keeps coming up.
In many ways, Moore does see himself as the leader for this moment. But he intends to be that leader for Maryland.
“I think people are really happy that, in Maryland, we’re moving fast and we’re moving smart,” Moore said.
“When I said this is Maryland’s decade, I meant that,” Moore said. “And I plan on seeing that through.”
Much of what he wants to see through – and the effort that Moore thinks will make this “Maryland’s decade” – is a fostering of growth in the private sector. He sees it as a way to unentangle Maryland, which has long been reliant on Washington, from the federal government, at least economically.
“Particularly when you have a federal government that is literally attacking our state, and attacking our federal workers… what are the industries that we think we have a significant growth opportunity in?”
It’s not a new refrain. Moore has beaten the drum of building up Maryland’s “lighthouse industries,” which include aerospace, defense and life sciences, for months. But he’s also increasingly acting on it, with the overseas trip an opportunity to grow relationships in areas like AI, cyber and quantum computing.
The plan has its share of doubters. Quantum computing, one of the industries Moore has poured extensive resources into, serves as an example. While Moore has earmarked quantum as a significant economic boost, many still think quantum is still years, if not decades, away from viability. And in some of those lighthouse industries, Maryland has a stiff competitor in neighboring Virginia, a battle that Maryland has often found itself on the losing side of.
And, while Moore has promised a dedication to small business growth, many Republicans think that the policies he and Democrats in Annapolis have enacted run counter to that goal.
“Maryland has a continuing reputation of not being business friendly, not being entrepreneur friendly,” House Republican Leader Jason Buckel, who represents Allegany County, told CNS on the last day of session.
Del. Jesse Pippy, the House Republican Whip, took aim at Moore’s tax reform as a burden on Maryland and its economy.
“We have the largest tax increase in Maryland history, nearly $1.7 billion,” Pippy, who represents Frederick County, told CNS on the last day of session. “This is just completely unnecessary, and I don’t think it’s what the majority of Marylanders are looking for, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Even if Moore’s targeted investments and overall economic strategy prove to be prudent, with constant challenges on the federal level, it’s going to be harder to achieve the same results.
“We’re going to have to be aggressive in the way that we are communicating it,” Moore said of his efforts to keep Maryland moving forward under Trump, “because the people are experiencing it right now, and they’re experiencing in real time.
“I have just spoken with countless Marylanders who now have lost their jobs,” Moore said, “in many ways arbitrarily and in many ways illegally.”
Moore said that one man, a Republican, stuck out to him.
“He said he still has not told his kids that he was laid off from his job,” Moore said. “In fact, he gets up in the morning and he puts on a suit so his kids see him in a suit, so they don’t know that he got laid off. This is real for Maryland families, and Maryland families are seeing this every day.”
Moore said that he doesn’t need to remind Maryland families of “the chaos that this Trump administration is bringing” to Marylanders, but that they need to be “assured” that “we are doing anything and everything in our power” to protect them from “something that is deeply disruptive and deeply disturbing.”
In doing so, Moore is open to working with Trump and Washington going forward – in fact, he said that he “will work with anybody who wants to work with [Maryland].” But he isn’t willing to compromise his values to do it.
“While I will work with anyone, I will bow down to no one,” Moore said. “And if the requirement for partnership is ceding my values, if the requirement for a partnership is somehow kowtowing or curling up in a fetal position, if the requirement is allowing my people to be left behind, then the answer is, I will never surrender to you.”