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By MELISSA GOLDIN
Along with pardoning two North Carolina turkeys on the annual White Home ceremony Tuesday, President Donald Trump mentioned his crime-fighting efforts in Washington, D.C., claiming that it’s been months because the metropolis has seen a homicide.
However Metropolitan Police Division statistics say in any other case.
Trump deployed Nationwide Guard troops to Washington in August in an effort to curb violent crime though it had already reached its lowest ranges in many years.
Right here’s a more in-depth have a look at the details.
TRUMP: “We haven’t had a homicide in six months.”
THE FACTS: That’s false. There have been 62 homicides in Washington since Could 25, together with one final week, in keeping with the MPD. Town has seen 123 homicides thus far in 2025. Since Nationwide Guard troops have been deployed to Washington on Aug. 11, there have been 24. In some information, solely 61 homicides have been reported within the final six months, and solely 23 since Aug. 11, due to a technical error, the MPD mentioned.
Requested for touch upon Trump’s declare, the division mentioned that the statistics converse for themselves.
White Home spokeswoman Taylor Rogers confused Trump’s transformation of Washington “from a crime-ridden mess into an exquisite, clear, protected metropolis” when requested concerning the discrepancy between his declare and metropolis information. She didn’t handle the discrepancy instantly.
A federal decide on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to finish its monthslong deployment of Nationwide Guard troops within the nation’s capital. U.S. District Choose Jia Cobb discovered that Trump’s army takeover illegally intrudes on native officers’ authority to direct legislation enforcement within the district. The order is on maintain for 21 days to permit for attraction.
District of Columbia Lawyer Normal Brian Schwalb in September sued to problem the Guard deployments. He requested the decide to bar the White Home from deploying Guard troops with out the mayor’s consent whereas the lawsuit performs out.
In the course of the turkey pardoning, Trump mentioned Washington “is now thought-about a protected zone,” making the faulty declare that “we haven’t seen a homicide in six months.”
A Division of Justice report from January confirmed that whole violent crime in 2024 was on the lowest it had been in additional than 30 years, together with a 32% drop in homicides from 2023, when it skilled a post-pandemic peak.
Homicides up to now six months are down 46% from the identical interval final 12 months, whereas homicides because the August deployment are down 38% from the earlier interval, MPD information exhibits. There was a 29% lower in homicides in 2025 so far in comparison with 2024.
Violent crime through the Nationwide Guard’s preliminary one-month surge in Washington was down 39% from the identical interval final 12 months, together with a 53% drop in homicides, with seven through the surge, in comparison with 15 throughout the identical timespan in 2024.
Arson is the one kind of crime that has not seen a lower, with a 0% change from final 12 months to this 12 months.
Town’s statistics got here into query, nonetheless, after federal authorities opened an investigation into allegations that officers altered among the information to make it look higher. The investigation is ongoing.
Related Press writers Gary Fields and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
Discover AP Truth Checks right here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
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