“[I]n the last 11 days, we've had no murders, and that's the first time that's taken place in years ... I read where crime is down 89 percent. I said, 'Really? Who are the 11 percent?' Okay? There's no crime.”

The 11-day stretch was real, but the "first time in years" framing is false: Washington, D.C. had three murder-free periods of a week or more earlier in 2025, one of them 16 days long, all before Trump's August federal takeover. FactCheck.org documented this directly, titling its analysis "D.C. Homicide-Free Streak Not First in 'Years.'" The longer pause Trump claimed was historic had already been beaten months earlier under normal city policing. "Almost no crime" is also untrue. CNN's review of the D.C. police database found 725 reported crimes (62 violent and 663 property) in just the first stretch of the federal takeover (August 12 through that Sunday). Trump separately claimed in November that there had been "no murders in DC for the last six months"; fact-checkers found that false too, as multiple homicides occurred during that window.

Crucially, D.C.'s crime decline predates and is not attributable to Trump's intervention. Homicides fell to 127 in 2025 from 187 in 2024, the second consecutive yearly drop, and the downward trend began in 2024, before any takeover. Mayor Muriel Bowser noted violent crime in D.C. had already reached its lowest level in roughly 30 years. Trump took credit for a decline that was already well underway. "Trump falsely claimed it had been 'many years' since the city had previously had a murder-free stretch of even a week; in fact, Washington had three such periods since late February of this year, one of them 16 days long." — CNN fact check / FactCheck.org