White House Touts Study Showing Lowest Murder Rate in Major Cities in 126 Years

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday touted a study showing that the murder rate in major U.S. cities dropped to its lowest level in more than 125 years.

Leavitt cited the report from the Council on Criminal Justice during a White House press briefing.

“A study from the Council on Criminal Justice shows that the murder rate across America’s largest cities plummeted in 2025 to its lowest level since at least 1900,” she said, highlighting that it “marks the largest single year drop in murders in recorded history.”

“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,” she added.

According to Leavitt, the FBI made twice as many violent-crime arrests in 2025 as it did in 2024, the last full year of former President Joe Biden’s presidency. Through the first full year of Trump’s presidency, there were nearly 200 percent more total FBI arrests than there were from January 20, 2024, to January 20, 2025.

“The FBI also disrupted 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises, a 210 percent increase from the year prior. The FBI has arrested 1,700 child predators and more than 300 human traffickers across the country,” she noted. “Since President Trump took office, six of the FBI’s top 10 Most Wanted fugitives have been captured.”

In Washington, DC, where Trump federalized the police last year and deployed the National Guard, crime in 2026 to date is down substantially across virtually all categories compared to the same period in 2025. As of Thursday, there were three murders in the nation’s capital throughout the year, down 83 percent from 18 murders between January 1 and February 5 in 2025.

Sex abuse crimes are down 63 percent, robberies have fallen 58 percent, burglaries have dropped 44 percent, motor vehicle theft has plummeted 58 percent, and arson is down 100 percent.

“President Trump promised to make Washington, D.C. safe and beautiful again — now it is one of the safest cities in the country,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Breitbart News on Monday. “Thanks to President Trump’s successful federal law enforcement operation, our nation’s capital has seen a dramatic decrease in crime and homicide.”