Trump’s Claims On Washington D.c. Crime: Fact-checking

In journalism rundown, Leavitt stated that regarding “850 police officers and representatives were risen across the city” the evening of Aug. 11 and made 23 arrests for “murder, weapons offenses, property with intent to distribute narcotics, fare evasion, salacious acts, tracking, ownership of a high capacity publication,” as well as website traffic offenses and a bench warrant. She stated that six illegal handguns were confiscated.

Trump’s Claims of Rising Crime

Trump’s exec order also said, “Criminal offense runs out control in the Area of Columbia,” and referred to “rising physical violence” and an “boost in violent criminal activity.” Again, that overlooks a current decrease in criminal activity.

The Defense Department stated that about 800 soldiers were triggered on Aug. 11. “Responsibilities for those employees consist of logistical and administrative duties, as well as supplying a physical presence in support of legislation enforcement,” DoD stated.

In an Aug. 11 Substack blog post, Asher created that the authorities division’s published data is possibly overemphasizing the size of the current fierce criminal activity decrease, as a result of distinctions in the crime categories, compared to what’s reported to the FBI. “That’s not naturally troublesome, but contrasting what is being released by DC to the numbers being reported to the FBI recommends that the department’s website is overstating the decline in terrible criminal offense over the last two years,” Asher wrote. “Terrible criminal offense is still decreasing, however probably not as long as is being reported.”

Data on Crime Trends in D.C.

The CCJ record on criminal activity in Washington showed “carjacking increased considerably during 2020 and spiked to a peak of 140 reported events, a price of 20.6 per 100,000 locals, in June 2023. In June 2025, there were 36 reported occurrences, or a price of 5.1, a rate reduction of 75%.”.

Stats released by the Metropolitan Authorities Department on the same day as Trump’s comments revealed the number of homicides had lowered by 32% from 2023 to 2024 and by 12% so far from 2024 to 2025. Furthermore, the U.S. Attorney’s Workplace for the Area of Columbia reported in January that fierce crime general for 2024 was down 35% from the previous year and was “the lowest it has been in over 30 years.”

Federal control can last for 30 days, provided that Trump notifies congressional boards with territory over Washington within 2 days of the order. Congress would need to pass a resolution if the president desires to keep federal control after 30 days.

Trump’s Actions and Federal Control

In proclaiming a “criminal offense emergency situation” in Washington, Trump wrongly declared at an Aug. 11 interview, “Murders in 2023 got to the greatest rate most likely ever before. They state 25 years, but they don’t recognize what that means due to the fact that it simply returns 25 years.”

Head of state Donald Trump inaccurately asserted that the murder price in Washington, D.C., “reached the highest rate possibly ever before” in 2023, and he neglected a decrease in murders since then to validate a government takeover of the city’s police.

Trump stated that 500 government police officer, including from the FBI, DEA, Trick Service and Division of Homeland Safety and security, were sent off to Washington the week prior to his executive order.

Expert Analysis and Context

Jeff Asher, a co-founder of AH Datalytics, an information consulting company that produces a gathering of crime data provided by legislation enforcement firms around the country, informed us Trump’s insurance claim concerning murders striking an all-time high in Washington “is not exact. That was still down even more than 50% from 1991’s murder price of even more than 80 per 100K when the city had 482 murders. It has actually likewise since fallen and is on pace with 2019’s pace so much in 2025,” Asher, a previous CIA analyst, claimed via email.

In an executive order, Trump conjured up the Home Rule Act to take federal control of the Washington police division. The 1973 legislation offers the president the power to do so when he “determines that special conditions of an emergency situation nature exist which require using the Metropolitan Police force for Federal objectives.”.

United state Army spokesman Col. Dave Butler informed the Washington Blog post that the soldiers, who will operate in changes of 200 workers at once, would certainly provide an encouraging duty for the city’s authorities and can stand at street junctions to discourage criminal activity.

Carjacking Concerns

A location where the president a lot more precisely portrayed a spike remained in crimes against automobile proprietors, pointing out an Aug. 3 attack on a previous Division of Government Performance staff member throughout a tried carjacking in northwest Washington. “The variety of cars and truck burglaries has folded the past 5 years and the number of carjackings has greater than tripled,” Trump claimed at his Aug. 11 press occasion.

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“This is an accurate summary,” Asher told us. “Both auto burglaries and carjackings have fallen significantly after coming to a head in 2023, but both crimes continue to be well over pre-surge [pandemic] levels. Carjackings are falling quickly again in 2025 though automobile burglaries are no longer dropping at the moment.”

City Response and Ongoing Trends

At an interview after Trump’s announcement, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser noted the historical “rhetoric about the city” from the White House. “We additionally understand that we are not experiencing a spike in crime however a reduction in criminal offense,” Bowser said.

Stephen Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown College Law Facility, created in a Substack blog post that “the authority is just to make use of the MPD ‘for government purposes.’ To put it simply, the President can borrow the MPD for his own concerns; but he can’t control just how they discharge their various other tasks.”.

Jeff Asher, a co-founder of AH Datalytics, a data consulting firm that generates an aggregation of criminal offense data provided by law enforcement agencies around the country, told us Trump’s case about murders striking an all-time high in Washington “is not exact. Generally in the U.S., fierce crime and murder prices peaked years ago and are a lot lower in recent years, as we have actually written. In an Aug. 11 Substack blog post, Asher created that the cops division’s released information is most likely overemphasizing the dimension of the current violent criminal activity decrease, due to the fact that of differences in the criminal activity categories, contrasted with what’s reported to the FBI. Asher created in a New York Times column in 2019 that crime reporting methods “can affect understandings of crime as much as real criminal offense fads do. Some cities include stretching suburbs within their city limits, he noted, and while the core of a city may have a high crime price, “the numbers from suburban locations can bring rates down.”

Overall in the U.S., violent criminal offense and murder prices came to a head decades ago and are a lot reduced in recent times, as we have actually created. There was a spike in fierce crime, especially murders, in 2020 nationwide, partly due to the economic results of the COVID-19 pandemic, specialists have claimed. Violent criminal offense has lowered across the country since, yet Washington saw an uptick in 2023.

Asher composed in a New York Times column in 2019 that criminal activity reporting practices “can affect assumptions of crime as much as actual criminal offense fads do. And decisions regarding where to attract a city’s borders and which offenses to count as main crimes can matter as long as the amount of criminal offenses were reported in a provided year.” Some cities consist of stretching suburbs within their city limits, he kept in mind, and while the core of a city may have a high criminal activity price, “the numbers from suburban areas can bring prices down.”

Comparative Crime Rates

A: The Trump administration did not defund the NWS yet did reduce the personnel by 600 people. Those staffing cuts did not cause the high number of fatalities in the flash floodings on July 4, specialists said. Neighborhood projecting offices were completely staffed and provided prompt cautions. However specialists increased issues about crucial positions being uninhabited, which can have impacted sychronisation with neighborhood areas.

The homicide rate in the nation’s funding was the 4th greatest amongst 24 U.S. cities in 2024, according to a record by the Facility for Public Safety And Security Efforts at Rochester Institute of Modern technology that rely upon local report and specific firm information. The 3 cities with greater prices than Washington were St. Louis, New Orleans and Detroit.

Trump’s Exaggerated Claims

A report released by CCJ adhering to Trump’s announcement of a government takeover of Washington’s authorities division stated that “total, there is a distinct and large drop in reported violence in the District considering that the summertime of 2023, when there were optimals in homicide, gun attacks, break-in, and carjacking. That down fad is consistent with what’s being reported in various other large cities throughout the nation, while the degree of violence in Washington continues to be greater than average in our sample.”

Pointing out Washington’s 2023 murder rate, Trump likewise misleadingly stated, “The murder rate in Washington today is more than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, several of the areas that you read about as being the worst position on Planet, much higher.” He included later, “We doubled up on Baghdad; Panama City; Brasilia; San Jose, Costa Rica; Bogota, Colombia, hefty medicines; Mexico City I discussed; Lima, Peru; all dual and triple what they are. … D.C., 41 per 100,000, No. 1 that we can discover throughout the world. Other cities are quite poor, but they’re not as bad as that.”

There are a couple of facets to Trump’s activities pertaining to policing in Washington, D.C. He took control of the Metropolitan Authorities Division, boosted government law enforcement policemans’ presence in the city and turned on the D.C. National Guard.