Trump claims DC crimes trounce stats from notoriously violent cities worldwide

"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 said Monday. "This is much higher. The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years, and the number of carjackings has more than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate, probably ever. They say 25 years, but they don't know what that means because it just goes back 25 years can't be worse." 

Trump whipped out charts showing the media that the nation's capital allegedly suffers worse crime trends than other cities worldwide, calling on them to "take a look at numbers" as he rattled off the data's findings. 

The nation overall saw an uptick in violent crimes in 2020, when protests and riots broke out in cities across the nation at the height of the pandemic. That year notched a nearly 30% increase in murders compared to the year prior, according to FBI data, marking the largest single-year increase in killings since the agency began tracking the crimes.

Trump announced Monday that he was federalizing the local police department starting Monday under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital's police force.