On Monday, President Donald Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. Trump claims that “rising violence in the capital” and an “increase in violent crime” have compelled him to deploy the D.C. National Guard, dispatch FBI agents, and – perhaps most ominously – federalize the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Let us be clear: Violent crime is a serious, ongoing problem in Washington – but there is no “crime emergency.” Trump is lying to justify his own authoritarian desire to deploy the military on the streets of America’s cities, while also commandeering a police force from a Democratic mayor. This isn’t the first time Trump has manufactured a fake “emergency.” It is one of his favorite tactics.

In declaring a crime emergency, Trump cited Washington’s high murder and carjacking rates. But Jeff Asher, a leading expert on crime data statistics, highlighted that after a sharp increase in 2023, murders in Washington “began falling in 2024” and “have been steadily falling through July 2025,” and is “exactly” the same as “was reported through July 2019.” Per Asher, carjackings in D.C. have followed a similar pattern, surging in 2023 before falling “to levels consistent with the start of the pandemic.” Murders and carjackings remain far too common—but the trend line is going down, not up.

Not long ago, the Trump administration itself was bragging about Washington’s falling violent crime rate. In late April, Ed Martin, Jr., a Trump...

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