“Crime now in Minnesota, crime now in Minneapolis is down. Crime in all cities is down... It's down because of us. It's down in Chicago by 25%.”

The numbers Trump cites are roughly right, but his central claim, "it's down because of us," is false. Crime did not start falling when Trump returned to office in January 2025; it had been declining gradually for years across U.S. cities and towns, well before his federal deployments. In Chicago, violent crime fell in every category in 2025 from 2024 levels, and the city was simply continuing a downward trajectory it was already on, according to Chicago Police Department data.

His Minneapolis claim is shakier still. City data shows 2026 crime is mixed, not uniformly "down": some violent crimes such as assault offenses, motor vehicle theft, and sex offenses rose over the prior year, while homicide, burglary, and destruction of property fell. PolitiFact rated Trump's claim that immigration enforcement drove a Minneapolis crime drop Mostly False, noting he cited a window of only about five weeks and offered no evidence the arrests caused any decline.

The sweeping line, "crime in all cities is down," is also an overstatement: the national homicide decline is real and historic, but it does not mean every city or every category of crime fell. Where Trump deployed forces, the data often shows no clear effect: in New Orleans, for example, city tracking data suggests crime has been nearly flat since federal agents arrived. The honest summary: crime fell, but the trend predates Trump and there is no evidence his deployments caused it.

"Crime also did not suddenly begin falling when Trump returned to office in January 2025; it has been declining gradually for years." — NBC News fact-check of Trump's Feb. 4, 2026 interview