Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) said the Trump administration blocked him from speaking at the groundbreaking of an Anduril facility in Baltimore County.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Moore claimed credit for the facility’s construction, which broke ground that day and is set to produce critical components for Virginia-class submarines. However, he said the Trump administration hadn’t given him a speaking role at the groundbreaking, so he wouldn’t be attending.
“We have been working with them for over a year to bring them on board, and we’re excited about what it’s going to mean to the area,” Moore began. “But if the president of the United States wants to bring the circus into town and tell me that I’m not allowed to speak, to the fact that we were the ones that helped bring the deal, then I will let the circus be conducted while I go back to the work of the people of Maryland.”
The White House hit back at Moore, portraying him as ungrateful after it “graciously” invited him.
“It’s unfortunate that the Governor is now making a multi-billion dollar announcement about himself by throwing a tantrum over an announcement that will bring sorely needed jobs back to his state thanks to President Trump,” the White House said in a statement, the Hill reported.
The 2 million square-foot facility, dubbed Arsenal-2, comes from a $2.9 billion contract that the weapons maker won from the Navy. The facility will produce torpedo tubes for the submarines, which are built by General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding. Like much of military production, several companies play a central role in producing different parts of weapons.
Shipbuilding has become a bipartisan concern, as the U.S. has fallen from the world’s premier shipbuilder in the 20th century to largely outsourcing the costly endeavor. Officials hope Arsenal-2 will help accelerate the glacial pace of U.S. naval shipbuilding.