Murder rates drop for third year in a row as Trump complains nation is ‘breaking down’

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Although Trump declared in a Truth Social post Thursday that the U.S. is “breaking down” with violence, blaming the current administration’s “open borders,” data shows that rates of violent crime and murder actually plummeted in 2024. “Considering where we were just three or four years ago, we’re basically looking at 5,000 fewer murder victims than in 2020, 2021 and 2022 having occurred in 2024,” Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics and a former crime analyst for the CIA and the New Orleans Police Department, told ABC News. Despite warnings about the nation’s alleged crime surge, rates of violent crime and murder have actually dropped, data shows This positive news comes amid a string of recent high-profile murder cases, including the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York City, the woman fatally set ablaze on the subway, and the driver who fatally plowed into a New Orleans crowd on New Year’s Day. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before.” On Thursday, he also blamed immigration when claiming the country is “breaking down.” open image in gallery A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early New Year’s Day.