“Crime is down 88%, and our capital is shining again with 62 monuments, statues, water fountains looking more beautiful.”

White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Washington

No measure of crime in the city fell by anything like 88 percent. The Metropolitan Police Department's own year-to-date figures show total crime down 15 percent, from 18,647 to 15,828, and homicide down 30 percent, from 107 to 75. The Council on Criminal Justice's first-half analysis found declines in six of eight offence types, the largest of them carjacking at 63 percent, with aggravated assault up 45 percent. No category fell anywhere near 88 percent.

The fall in homicide is large and real, and it is the claim's best defence. What is false is the figure, not the direction. He named no baseline period, and no opened source shows an 88 percent fall on any measure or over any span.