President Donald Trump claimed crimes in Washington, D.C., trounce data from notoriously violent cities in nations such as Mexico and Colombia during his Monday morning press conference announcing he is federalizing the D.C. police department to curb spiraling violence.
"The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth, much higher," Trump said Monday. "This is much higher. The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years, and the number of carjackings has more than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate, probably ever. They say 25 years, but they don't know what that means because it just goes back 25 years can't be worse."
Trump whipped out charts showing the media that the nation's capital allegedly suffers worse crime trends than other cities worldwide, calling on them to "take a look at numbers" as he rattled off the data's findings.
"Look at these. Baghdad is … we doubled up on Baghdad. Panama City, Brasilia, San Jose, Costa Rica, Bogota, Colombia. Heavy drugs. Mexico City, I mentioned Lima, Peru, all double and triple what they are. So do you want to live in places like that? I don't think so. I don't think so. And I think the people in this room, if you wrote correctly, you'd see. Look at the kind of numbers we have. D.C. 41 per 100,000 (for homicides in 2023). Number one that we can find anywhere in the world. Other cities are pretty bad, but they're not as bad as that. That the way you want to live? The reporters of the world? Juvenile offenders and crimes against persons as they say, it's getting worse, not getting better. It's getting worse," he continued.
TRUMP IS THREATENING TO 'FEDERALIZE' DC WITH NATIONAL GUARD AND MORE. HERE'S HOW THAT COULD PLAY OUT
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press about deploying federal law enforcement agents in Washington to bolster the local police presence, as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House, in Washington D.C., U.S., August 11, 2025. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) (Reuters)
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for copies of the charts, data and its citations, but did not immediately receive a reply.
The nation overall saw an uptick in violent crimes in 2020, when protests and riots broke out in cities across the nation at the height of the pandemic. That year notched a nearly 30% increase in murders compared to the year prior, according to FBI data, marking the largest single-year increase in killings since the agency began tracking the crimes.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press, accompanied by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, about deploying federal law enforcement agents in Washington to bolster the local police presence, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House, in Washington D.C., U.S., August 11, 2025. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) (Reuters)
The nation's capital in the following years has been rocked by shootings that have left innocent children shot and dead, a trend of juveniles committing carjackings that have turned deadly in some cases, shoplifting crimes and attacks on government employees, summer interns and others, including the fatal shooting of 21-year-old congressional intern, Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, in June.
Trump announced Monday that he was federalizing the local police department starting Monday under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital's police force.
President Donald Trump announced Aug. 11, 2025, that he was federalizing the local police department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
"This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back," he said. "We're taking it back under the authority vested in me as the president of the United States, I'm officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. You know what that is. And placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control. … In addition, I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, DC. And they're going to be allowed to do their job properly."