Violent crime up in DC despite Trump boast of National Guard presence

President Donald Trump said during his State of the Union address in February that Washington DC has "almost no crime anymore" thanks to his deployment of the National Guard last August. They were comments he took a step further in July, when he said DC has gone to levels of "NO CRIME" under his leadership. The president is right; overall crime is down in DC. Fueled by a 53% drop in motor vehicle theft and a 37% decrease in theft from automobiles, there has been 23% less property crime in DC from 2026 to 2025, according to police data. But numbers provided by the Metropolitan Police Department tell a different story, one that shows violent crime numbers are up this year. As of Aug. 10, there were 1,655 reported instances of violent crime in the city — 55 more than the same period from last year. Most of that increase is due to a sharp upswing in reports of assault with a deadly weapon. There is a 41% increase in such activity, with 767 cases so far this year. The data does show homicides are down — 67 cases this year, compared to 97 on this date in 2025 — but the summer has seen a dramatic increase. There have been 32 homicides since the beginning of June, including nine in the past two weeks, police data shows.