'Why do you need Donald Trump?' Michael Steele explodes at 'incompetent' GOP governor

03 September 2025

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) on MSNBC's "The Weeknight" on September 3, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)

President Donald Trump recently floated the idea of sending National Guard troops to New Orleans, Louisiana, after Gov. Jeff Landry (R) sent the president a formal request. MSNBC host Michael Steele — who is the former Republican lieutenant governor of Maryland — said that Landry's request should be seen as an admission of failure.

Trump's proposal to deploy the military to the Big Easy comes after the president's repeated threats of a troop deployment to Chicago, Illinois. However, because a president's Title 32 authority — which he's used to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 that prohibits the military from being used as domestic law enforcement personnel — requires a governor's consent, sending troops to a state with a Republican governor would be a lighter lift than doing so in a state with a Democratic governor. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has so far refused Trump's call to request assistance, stymieing the administration's efforts to send troops.

In a Wednesday segment on his show "The Weeknight," Steele called Landry's request — in which he welcomed federal assistance "from New Orleans to Shreveport" — "a load of crock" that proves his "incompetency" as governor of the Bayou State.

"If the good Governor Landry had such a problem in New Orleans or Shreveport, what the hell have you been doing all this time as governor? The National Guard is under his purview. So why do you need Donald Trump to come into your state to get the National Guard to deal with your crime problem?" Steele asked.

"And if that's the case, then why the hell are you governor? Because you haven't done the job," he continued. "You've allowed this to fester under your watch. And you're so incompetent at this point that you need the help of the president of the United States to validate your incompetency."

Trump's stated reason for the deployment is to deal with crime in Louisiana. However, Steele's co-host, Alicia Melendez, observed earlier in the segment that in New Orleans, firearm-related homicides are down by 38 percent compared to September of 2024, while overall crime in the Crescent City is down by more than 21 percent over the same time period. Steele said that in his experience as a former statewide elected official, the buck stops with him, and begging the federal government for help would be seen as a lack of effective state leadership.

"I don't understand. Help me understand what I'm missing," Steele said. "Because as the former lieutenant governor of a state, I know damn well that if it's happening on my watch in Baltimore or Prince George's County, Anne Arundel County, that's on us. And if we're calling the president to come in? Then we really messed some stuff up."

Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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