FBI director Kash Patel admits that the murder rate in America is on track to be the lowest in U.S. history, undercutting President Donald Trump’s depiction of major cities as crime-riddled hellscapes.
The president on Monday unveiled plans to deploy the National Guard and take over the Metropolitan Police in order to “rescue” Washington D.C. from what he said was an existence of “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor”.
The move came despite the fact that violent offenses across all major categories are falling in the nation’s capital, raising questions about the president’s true motives for the crackdown, which he said could serve as a model for other cities.
In the middle of his hour-plus press conference, Trump’s own FBI director also partly contradicted Trump’s claim by boasting to reporters that “murder rates are plummeting.”
“We are now reporting that the murder rate is on track to be the lowest in US history - in modern recorded history - thanks to this team behind me and President Trump’s priorities,” Patel said as he stood alongside Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
As Trump spoke, MSNBC and CNN also displayed graphics of the latest falling crime rates to show that the dystopian image of D.C. depicted during Monday’s press conference is far cry from the reality most residents face in the district.
While public safety remains an ongoing challenge, particularly in low income neighborhoods, the latest figures show that homicides are down 12 percent this year compared to last year; assault with a dangerous weapon has fallen by 20 percent; burglaries are down 20 percent; and robberies are down by 30 percent.
Experts on authoritarianism have warned that Trump, who has previously deployed both the California National Guard as well as active-duty Marines to tackle protesters in Los Angeles, is trying to get Americans used to the idea of having federal troops on the ground in cities across the U.S.
This is an idea that has been touted several times before, both by the president and those in his orbit, such as Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, who now runs the White House Office of Budget Management.
In her first remarks since Trump’s announcement, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the president’s actions were “unsettling and unprecedented, but I can’t say, given the rhetoric of the past, that we are totally surprised.”
She also warned that the plan could turn into a “disaster” if D.C. residents, some of whom are from communities that already distrust police, become more reluctant to report crimes or cooperate with authorities under a Trump takeover.
“I think I speak for all Americans - we don’t believe it’s legal to use the American military against American citizens on American soil,” the Democratic mayor added.
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin accused Trump of “once again playing political games using service members and federal law enforcement officials.”
“Donald Trump’s record as president is marked by gross abuses of power, and his latest move to supersede local law enforcement by deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C. is no exception,” he said.
But Trump insisted he would “liberate” D.C, telling reporters: “You want to be able to leave your apartment or house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something and you don’t have that now.
“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’s press conference took place after a photo surfaced last week of a former federal DOGE staffer who was violently bashed as part of an unarmed car jacking.
Over the weekend, he ordered more federal law enforcement agents to be deployed on city streets and called for children as young as 14 to be charged as adults.
But his push to “federalize DC” has prompted growing outrage, with about 150 people gathering near the White House on Monday to protest his latest attempt to assert control over the city.
