Trump Suggests Domestic Violence Shouldn’t Count in Crime Statistics

Former President Donald Trump stirred controversy on Monday, Sept. 8, during a speech at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., where he dismissed the inclusion of domestic violence cases in crime statistics.

Trump, addressing supporters, praised his deployment of federal troops to the capital, claiming it had turned Washington from “the worst, the most violent city” into “a totally safe zone.” He insisted crime had nearly vanished, but suggested the numbers were being inflated by disputes inside households.

“There’s no crime. They said crime is down 87 percent, no, no, no, it’s more than 87 percent, [it’s] virtually nothing,” Trump said. “Much lesser things, things that take place in the home, they call crime, you know. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime, see,’ so now I can’t claim 100 percent. But we are a safe city.”

The comments drew sharp criticism, given the former president’s long history of facing allegations of misconduct toward women. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of harassment, abuse, or sexual assault , allegations he has repeatedly denied.

Trump’s remarks also came just days after a federal appeals court upheld an $83 million defamation judgment in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s.

A 2023 jury previously found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, and in 2024, he was convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records tied to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

Daniels, who said she had an affair with Trump in 2006, alleged he once asked her to spank him with a copy of Forbes magazine featuring him and his children on the cover, a claim backed up by associates who worked with her at the time.