White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday highlighted new crime statistics showing a historic drop in violent crime nationwide, arguing the data vindicates President Donald Trump’s law-and-order agenda just one year into his return to office.
Citing figures compiled by the Council on Criminal Justice, Leavitt said the national murder rate fell in 2025 to its lowest level since 1900, a decline she credited to expanded federal law enforcement activity, border security, and the administration’s focus on removing violent criminal illegal aliens from American communities.
“This dramatic decline is what happens when a president secures the border, fully mobilizes federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals, and aggressively deports the worst of the worst illegal aliens from our country,” Leavitt said during Thursday’s press briefing. “The numbers don’t lie.”
Leavitt pointed to a sharp increase in federal arrests under the Trump administration, saying the FBI doubled its violent crime arrests in 2025 compared to the previous year. She said more than 67,000 arrests have been made since Trump’s inauguration, which the administration says represents a 197% increase over the same time period under the Biden administration.
According to Leavitt, the FBI has also significantly expanded its operations against organized crime, disrupting 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises nationwide, a 210% increase from the year prior. “The FBI has arrested 1,700 child predators and more than 300 human traffickers across the country,” Leavitt said. “Since President Trump took office, six of the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives have been captured right here in our nation’s capital.”
Leavitt further highlighted crime reductions in Washington, D.C., following Trump’s decision last summer to nationalize the city’s police force and deploy hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops to the district. While the move drew fierce criticism from Democrats and civil liberties groups at the time, the administration now says the results speak for themselves.
“As of last week, D.C. homicides were down 62%,” Leavitt said. She added that motor vehicle theft had dropped by 53% and that 2025 recorded the fewest violent gun crimes of any year in available data for the nation’s capital. More than 2,000 arrests have been made since the federal takeover, Leavitt said, noting that National Guard members remain deployed in the city as part of the administration’s continued crime suppression efforts.
The Trump administration has pursued similar enforcement strategies in other major cities, including Memphis, Tennessee, where federal agents and National Guard troops were deployed with the support of state and local officials.
Leavitt said nearly 5,600 arrests have been made in Memphis since the deployment began. “As of last week, aggravated assaults are down 53%, sexual assaults are down 53%, and robberies are down 70%,” she said.
Leavitt framed the administration’s broader crime strategy as inseparable from its immigration enforcement priorities, emphasizing the removal of criminal illegal aliens as a central pillar of public safety policy. The administration has repeatedly described its enforcement focus as targeting “the worst of the worst” offenders, deploying federal resources to cities where local leadership has struggled to contain violent crime.
While Democrats have accused Trump of overreach and politicizing federal law enforcement, the White House has leaned heavily into the crime statistics as evidence that its approach is working, particularly in cities long governed by left-wing leadership. Leavitt said the administration intends to continue expanding federal law enforcement operations in high-crime areas. 
“This is what tough, unapologetic law enforcement looks like,” she said. “And it’s saving lives.”
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Leavitt Highlights Historic Crime Decline As Murder Rate Hits Lowest Level Since 1900

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Leavitt Highlights Historic Crime Decline As Murder Rate Hits Lowest Level Since 1900