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— Judd
Calling crime data "fake news," Trump seizes DC police
Lies, manipulated data, unsubstantiated allegations, and an unprecedented federal takeover.
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In an executive order signed on Monday morning, President Trump announced a federal takeover of the DC's police department. Attorney General Pam Bondi is now in charge of the city's police force. Trump also said he would deploy 800 National Guard troops on the streets of the nation's capital.
According to Trump, these actions are required because "crime is out of control in the District of Columbia" and the city is being overrun by "bloodthirsty criminals." Trump claims that "rising violence in the capital now urgently endangers public servants, citizens, and tourists, [and] disrupts safe and secure transportation and the proper functioning of the Federal Government." He says the situation "demands an effective law-enforcement mechanism capable of halting the precipitous rise in violent crime."
Trump's claim that there is a "precipitous rise in violent crime" in DC is directly contradicted by official crime statistics. In January, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that "[t]otal violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years." According to city data, violent crime has declined by an additional 25% in 2025 year-to-date. Crime data expert Jeff Asher says that number could be potentially overstated due to differences in how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and DC categorize certain offenses. Nevertheless, he says that no matter how you slice the data, "[v]iolent crime is still declining" in DC. After looking at a variety of sources, Asher concludes there is "a strong downward trend in the crimes with the highest cost to society in the nation’s capital."
But even if crime is declining in DC, is DC still more dangerous than other large American cities? According to newly released FBI data for 2024, among cities with populations over 200,000, DC does not rank among the top 20 for violent crime rates per capita.
The White House also highlighted the murder rate in DC, which did spike in 2023 but has been declining rapidly since. The DOJ reported that homicides declined 32% in 2024. City data shows murders have declined by another 12% in 2025.
Among cities of 250,000 people or more, DC's murder rate ranks seventh. Although every homicide is tragic, DC's murder rate is now lower than or similar to that of many other major cities.
Instead of looking at the authoritative data that the FBI published regarding 2024 earlier this month, the White House sought to defend Trump's claims with a screenshot of a New York Post article, which in turn cited an outdated report published by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in February 2025.
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