Trump Making America Safe Again As Murder Rate Plummets

A newly released report shows the U.S. murder rate is on track to drop to its lowest level in the 125 years such records have been kept.

125 years. 

And nine of 13 offenses tracked in the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) Year-End 2025 Update declined by double digits from 2024. 

Might those lower numbers have something to do with the work of federal immigration law enforcement, so reviled by the left, taking thousands of criminal illegal aliens off the streets? Is Don Lemon a narcissist? 

The answer to both questions, of course, is yes. 

Corporate media outlets like Axios downplayed the significant declines, asserting “violent crime was already falling to a two-decade low in Biden’s final year, calling into question whether Trump’s policies have made an impact.” Axios leaned on a statement from CCJ’s CEO Adam Gelb, who said, “It’s extremely difficult to disentangle and pinpoint what’s actually driving the drop.” 

But it’s not that difficult. Removing convicted murderers, rapists, and thieves from communities is a pretty proven way to stop repeat offenders, and, hence, repeat offenses. It is, however, as easy for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for corporate media to give President Donald Trump credit for anything, including his administration’s success in taking on crime. Those efforts include enlisting the National Guard to help make safer some of America’s most violent cities. 

“After years of soft-on-crime policies that fueled violence, President Trump is proving that law and order works,” Republican National Committee National Press Secretary Kiersten Pels said in a statement to The Federalist. 

‘Enabling Chaos’

While near-record murder rates in the COVID lockdown years have fallen, for a number of reasons, Trump 2.0 has had a lot of cleanup to do from the mess the president’s Democrat predecessor left. 

In September 2024, Department of Homeland Security officials reported to Congress that they had tracked some 435,000 illegal aliens with criminal convictions not in custody. About 29,000 of those criminal illegal immigrants had been convicted of murder and/or sexual assault. 

As The Federalist reported last week: 

Internal DHS data, according to CBS News, shows about half of the detainees awaiting deportation have been charged or convicted of other crimes beyond breaking the nation’s immigration laws. 

But DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the broadcast network content provider that 70 percent of illegal immigrants arrested by ICE during President Trump’s first year in office have criminal records or are facing charges, including those with connections to terrorism.  

Source: Council on Criminal Justice

Immigration & Customs Enforcement documents criminal illegal aliens on high-profile removal status. Most in the category are fugitive noncitizens, meaning that they are wanted for a crime in another country. 

“Fugitive noncitizen removals cases generally involve those who’ve committed serious crimes, including murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, drug offenses, noncitizen smuggling, fraud or theft,” the federal law enforcement agency reports. “Some high profile removals are national security risks, such as suspected terrorists, those involved in counter-proliferation crimes or are on the Terrorist Watch list and/or the No-Fly list.”

Is it likely that some, if not many, of these high-profile criminal illegal immigrants might have committed or would commit violent crimes in the country they have illegally entered? Yes.

“With the murder rate now at its lowest level since 1900, Americans are seeing what happens when you support police, crack down on violent criminals, and stop coddling lawbreakers. Democrats spent years enabling chaos — President Trump is ending it,” said the RNC’s Pels. 

In too many cases, DHS officials say federal immigration law enforcement agents have had to bring into custody illegal immigrants that sanctuary city police refuse to detain. Marcos Charles, associate director in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, has said local law enforcement in Minnesota have refused to honor the agency’s detainer requests. State corrections officials deny the allegations, but Charles reiterated that counties are not cooperating. 

By the Numbers

Crime is down in 11 of the 13 categories tracked in the Council on Criminal Justice report, which updates and supplements the council’s previous U.S. crime trends reports with data through December 2025. The analysis examines yearly and monthly rates of violent, property, and drug offenses reported to police in 40 large American cities that have consistently reported monthly data over the past eight years. It includes several Disclaimers, noting in part that not all crimes are reported to law enforcement — or reported by law enforcement. 

But the report’s key takeaways include: 

• Reported levels of 11 of the 13 offenses covered were lower in 2025 than in 2024; nine of the offenses declined by 10% or more. Drug crimes were the only offense category that increased (+7%); sexual assault remained even.  
• The rate of reported homicides was 21% lower in 2025 than in 2024in the 35 study cities providing data for that crime, representing 922 fewer homicides. There were 9% fewer reported aggravated assaults, 22% fewer gun assaults, and 2% fewer domestic violence incidents last year than in 2024. Robbery fell by 23% while carjackings (a type of robbery) decreased by 43%.  
• When nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes are reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility that homicides in 2025 will drop to about 4.0 per 100,000 residents. That would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record. 
• In property crimes, there were 27% fewer motor vehicle thefts last year than in 2024 in the study cities. Reports of residential burglaries (-17%), nonresidential burglaries (-18%), larcenies (-11%), and shoplifting (-10%) all decreased compared to 2024. 

The Memphis Effect

The five cities with the steepest declines in homicides are: Denver (-41%); Washington, D.C. (40%); Omaha (40%); Los Angeles (-36%); and Buffalo (-35%). Only three cities — Milwaukee (+1%); Fort Worth (+2%) and Little Rock (+16%) reported increases in homicides, according to the report. 

It is interesting to note that two of the top 5 cities, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., had a National Guard presence in 2025, even as Democrat city and state leaders demanded Guard members leave. 

National Guard soldiers have been welcomed in Memphis, which routinely has posted the highest violent crime rate in the country. The Democrat-led Tennessee city saw crime in the fourth quarter of 2025 plunge 44 percent, with car theft down nearly 70 percent and homicides cut by 44 percent over the same period, according to the local government. 

In September, Trump issued his “Restoring Law and Order in Memphis” memorandum, which established the Memphis Safe Task Force. The federal-state-city partnership focuses on “hypervigilant policing, aggressive prosecution, complex investigations, financial enforcement, and large-scale saturation of besieged neighborhoods with law enforcement personnel…” the memo states. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also called on Tennessee’s Republican governor to send Tennessee National Guard units “to support public safety and law enforcement operations in Memphis.” 

John Green, manager of a candy store on Memphis’ Main Street, gave his thumbs up to Guard presence as soldiers began to arrive in October. 

“I’m looking for all the help I can get, I wish there was more,” he told the Wall Street Journal. 

Even the cranky liberal publication known as the Washington Post in November had to concede crime fell in Memphis after Trump quickly acted, although the content provider warned of growing “racial tensions.” 

As crime rates across the country fall, radical liberals have been ramping up their attacks on law enforcement. Must be an election year. 

“President Trump promised to bring back Law and Order to the United States of America. This is what happens when you have a President who fully mobilizes federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals and the worst of the worst illegal aliens,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X Thursday morning noting the Council on Criminal Justice report. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.