Donald Trump has responded to recent news of a substantial decrease in murder rates across the United States over the past year.
According to the Real-Time Crime Index (RTCI), overall crime rates have decreased significantly.
The data, gathered from local crime statistics across nearly 600 jurisdictions nationwide, is cited by NPR. However, the RTCI emphasizes that its findings only reflect crimes reported to law enforcement.
The RTCI’s analysis shows that violent crimes in the United States have decreased this year. From January to October 2025, 450,186 violent crimes were recorded, down from over 501,000 during the same period in 2024.
There has also been a reduction in ‘property crimes’ as categorized by the RTCI, such as burglaries, thefts, and motor vehicle thefts, which have decreased by 281,584 compared to 2024, a decline of 12.3 percent.
The murder rate has seen nearly a 20 percent drop nationwide this year compared to last.
However, Axios reports concerning spikes in murder rates in Johnston County, North Carolina, and Gilbert, Arizona, with increases of 600 percent.
Despite the general decline in murder rates across the country, Trump reacted in a rather atypical manner.
He shared a post on Twitter illustrating the decrease in crime rates, which particularly noted the drop in murders, and on December 26, he posted on Truth Social, seemingly quoting someone: “‘TRUMP IS DOING AN AMAZING JOB!'”
While Trump may attribute these reduced crime rates to his leadership, the tailing off of the pandemic’s effects might also have played a role.
Homicide rates surged in the US during 2020 and 2021, but the trend appears to be reversing.
Adam Gelb, president of the Council on Criminal Justice, discussed the prior rise in homicides with NPR: “There was a wide array of stresses — economic, financial, psychological — that the pandemic produced.
“And there were greater opportunities to settle beefs with rivals, precisely because there were fewer people on the streets and fewer cops on the streets.”
John Roman, who leads the Center on Public Safety & Justice at NORC, a research organization at the University of Chicago, also commented on the data.
“It’s the best year in crime I’ve seen in 27 years in this business,” he remarked about the 2025 findings.
Roman suggested that violence should be viewed as an epidemic.
“If epidemics cause things to spiral up, they should create virtuous cycles on the way down,” he explained further.
“The fewer serious crimes there are, the more resources law enforcement has to investigate each crime.”