At the Presidential Debate, Trump Again Falsely Claimed Crime Is Rising

During Tuesday's presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump repeated his false claim that crime is rising.

Crime has been going down everywhere else around the world, Trump said at ABC News' debate in Philadelphia, but "crime in this country is through the roof."

In fact, the 2020 crime wave has been receding for the past two years. Violent crime dropped in 2022 and 2023 and, according to preliminary data, is on track for another steep drop in 2024. The FBI's Quarterly Uniform Crime Report for the first quarter of 2024 reported that overall violent crime decreased by 15 percent nationally compared to the first quarter of 2023.

Debate moderators cited the FBI numbers, but Trump does not consider them reliable. "They were defrauding statements," Trump shot back. "They didn't include the cities with the worst crimes. It was a fraud."