President Trump suggested on Monday that offenses that “take place in the home” should not count against his record of crime reduction in Washington, saying his opponents are using reports of “a little fight with the wife” to undermine his crackdown.
During remarks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, Mr. Trump made a series of false statements about the level of crime in the nation’s capital, where he has ordered a federal takeover of law enforcement.
The president claimed without evidence that there was now zero crime in D.C. While crime is, in fact, declining in Washington — and Washington’s mayor has credited the federal law enforcement surge with contributing to the decline — there are still robberies, assaults and thefts occurring on a daily basis.
On Sunday alone, there was a homicide, six motor vehicle thefts, two assaults with a deadly weapon, four robberies and more than 30 thefts, according to police statistics.
“There’s no crime. They said, ‘Crime’s down 87 percent,’” Mr. Trump said Monday. “It’s more than 87 percent — virtually nothing.”
While Mr. Trump has made such false claims before, on Monday he sounded particularly aggrieved that domestic violence crimes were counting against him.
“Things that take place in the home they call crime,” he said. “They’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime scene.”
Those comments provoked quick criticism.
“Just a casual dismissal of domestic violence as a crime,” Sarah Longwell, a longtime Republican political strategist, wrote on social media.
The president has often sought to create an alternative reality of crime statistics to support the law enforcement actions he wishes to take.
On Monday he said people had categorized Washington as “the worst, the most violent city” in America, despite statistics showing a major crime decline in the nation’s capital even before his crackdown.
He has also targeted a series of other cities that are experiencing a crime decline, including Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans.
“I don’t know why Chicago isn’t calling us saying, please give us help,” Mr. Trump said on Monday.
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
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