Trump to tout drop in US crime rates with an eye on midterms

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 - U.S. President Donald Trump is set to showcase falling violent crime rates on Friday as evidence that his law-and-order agenda is working, seeking to shift attention away from economic concerns that have dented his approval ratings ahead of November's midterm elections.

Trump will visit the Nassau County Police Academy in New York to unveil 2025 data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that a White House official says will show the largest year-to-year decline in violent crime on record.

FBI Director Kash Patel and newly sworn-in Attorney General Todd Blanche are expected to join the president at the event with police.

The appearance comes as Republicans look for issues that resonate with swing voters amid concerns about inflation and the economic fallout from the war with Iran, while casting Democrats as out of step on public safety.

"President Trump promised to make America safe again and the data proves he has done just that," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.

According to excerpts from the FBI report shared by the White House before its publication, murder and non-negligent manslaughter decreased an estimated 18.1% in 2025 while robberies fell an estimated 18.5%.

Some violent crimes, including homicides, surged at the end of the first Trump administration during the COVID pandemic to the highest levels in decades. But the data shows that the subsequent fall predates Trump's return to office, with homicide rates plummeting in 2023 and 2024 to pre-pandemic lows.

The decline has occurred in cities big and small, in places with officials touting both aggressive policing and progressive police reform and with both a high density and low density of police officers, suggesting no single policy explains the nationwide trend.

Trump has long complained of a "crime epidemic," particularly in Democratic-run cities, and used that message to justify aggressive federal intervention, including last year's deployment of federal agents and National Guard troops to Washington.

Trump's touting of the crime decline comes as he has also sought in recent months to make socialism and communism a defining theme in the midterms. He has recently intensified attacks on self-described democratic socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other progressive candidates.

Democrats say Republicans are overstating the role of federal policy in a crime decline that began before Trump returned to office, and progressives have largely backed away from supporting the "defund the police" movement that emerged after George Floyd's murder in 2020.

They now say policing should be reformed while arguing that immigration officers, who have killed two U.S. citizens, have made communities less safe. REUTERS