Crime in the United States continued to fall in 2025, with preliminary city data showing steep declines in homicides and other major offenses, a trend President Donald Trump has seized on.
He said it is proof that tougher enforcement works.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association reported that 67 of 68 responding agencies recorded 5,452 homicides in 2025, down 19.3% from 6,758 in 2024, with robbery down 19.8%, aggravated assault down 9.7%, and rape down 8.8%.
Separately, the Council on Criminal Justice reported a 21% decline in homicides across 35 cities from 2024 to 2025 and said that if national figures follow a similar pattern, the U.S. homicide rate could fall to about 4 per 100,000 residents, the lowest recorded since at least 1900.
The FBI has not yet published the final nationwide 2025 annual figures, though its Crime Data Explorer reports that U.S. violent crime from December 2024 through November 2025 was down 10.0%, including an 18.2% drop in homicides.
Trump has claimed credit for the decrease.
In February, he said in his State of the Union address that the murder rate posted its largest recorded one-year decline and had fallen to its lowest level in more than 125 years.
The White House later amplified that argument, tying the decline to Trump's law-and-order agenda.
At the same time, Trump has framed crime through a partisan lens, especially in disputes with what he and his supporters call "sanctuary" jurisdictions — local and state governments that provide limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
In an April 28, 2025, White House fact sheet, Trump said Democrats were responsible for most crime.
"No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims," he wrote. "They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World. Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!"
Last April, he signed an executive order directing federal agencies to identify state and local jurisdictions that, in the administration's view, obstruct immigration enforcement, and the Department of Justice later published and updated sanctuary-jurisdiction lists under that order.
That gives the current crime story two tracks: a measurable national decline in reported offenses, and a continuing Republican argument that Democrats' governance, lax policies, and weaker enforcement still drive preventable crime.
The crime reports themselves, however, do not isolate partisan control as a cause of either the earlier surge or the recent decline.
The Council on Criminal Justice has instead pointed to overlapping factors, including the fading of pandemic disruption, enforcement and prevention efforts, improved court processing, and federal aid that helped local governments restore staffing and services.
There is also an important caution.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics said there were 23.3 violent victimizations per 1,000 people ages 12 or older in 2024, and the share of people experiencing at least one violent victimization was similar to 2023.
That survey measure has not moved in lockstep with police reports, suggesting the apparent improvement in public safety is not the last word.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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