The Associated Press has released a fact-check that appears to support Donald Trump’s assertion about the murder rate in Washington, DC, being higher than those in Bogota, Colombia, and Mexico City.

In an article titled ‘FACT FOCUS: Trump exaggerates, misstates facts on Washington crime’, the publication responds to a recent fervent press conference held by the former president.

During the conference, Trump claimed, ‘The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on earth.’

The administration, in turn, posted a chart to X comparing DC’s murder rate to other cities around the world.

The graphic showed DC’s murder rate at roughly 27 percent, Bogota at 15 percent, and Mexico City at 10 percent.

The AP piece conceded Washington is ‘one of America’s most-dangerous big cities,’ but pointed to how ‘the US in general’ sees higher rates of than many other countries.

‘Washington does have a higher homicide rate than many other global cities, including some that have historically been considered unsafe by many Americans,’ a portion reads. ‘But Trump is leaving out important context.’ 

The rest of the fact-check carried a similar tone, after Trump announced a federal takeover of the municipality’s police just hours earlier.

The Associated Press published a fact-check piece Monday that conceded Donald Trump’s claim that the murder rate in Washington, DC, is higher than those of both Bogota, Colombia, and Mexico City made earlier in the day was, in fact, correct

A US National Guard member outside the DC Armory after Trump’s order to deploy the National Guard on Monday. Trump pointed to an array of statistics and data at the conference announcing his decsion

‘Look at these. Baghdad is … we doubled up on Baghdad. Panama City, Brasilia, San Jose, Costa Rica, Bogota, Colombia,’ Trump told reporters as he showed charts comparing rates of crime in the nation’s capital to other cities.

‘Heavy drugs. Mexico City, I mentioned Lima, Peru, all double and triple what they are. So do you want to live in places like that? I don’t think so. I don’t think so.’

The White House attempted to substantiate its claims surrounding DC’s 2024 murder rate with a screenshot of a New York Post article, which in turn cited a report published by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in February 2025.

The report showed D.C.’s murder rate sitting at 27.54 per 100,000 in 2024 – slightly more than the 25 percent tabulated by the FBI.

Still, DC’s murder rate is high – seventh in the nation when looking at cities with 250,000 or more citizens.

Its rate is also markedly less than that of numerous Mexico cities, like Colima (126), Tijuana (91), Celaya (86), Cuernavaca (74), and Juárez (71), and cities in Colombia like Santa Marta (45) and Cali (42), which the AP piece touched on as well.

The AP piece, in turn, pointed out other factoids like murders in Washington in 2023 being ‘high, but not the highest ever,’ after Trump correctly noted at the press conference that the year was a terrible year for murders. 

He then flubbed by saying it was the ‘highest rate, probably ever. Probably 25 years.’

Pictured, a hilltop favela in Mexico City. The locale recorded a murder rate of about 10 percent last year. The AP piece pointed out how rate was still less than numerous other Mexico cities, like Colima (126), Tijuana (91), Celaya (86), Cuernavaca (74), and Juárez (71)

Pictured, the Ciudad Bolivar neighborhood  in Bogota, Colombia, which had a murder rate of roughly 15 percent in 2024. Cities in Colombia like Santa Marta (45) and Cali (42) had higher murder rates, the AP piece reported

The White House omitted such facts in a chart comparing DC’s murder rate to other cities around the world. AP piece also argued that ‘the US in general sees higher rates of than many other countries’

‘THE FACTS,’ the AP fact piece blared. ‘In 2023, the District of Columbia recorded 274 murders in a city of about 700,000, its highest number in 20 years. 

‘But the city’s own crime statistics from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, when the population was smaller, show much higher numbers of homicides.’

Other inconsistencies from Trump’s speech honed in on included Trump’s blaming of cashless bail for DC’s crime situation despite an absence of data, and statistics from Washington’s Metropolitan Police that contradicted claims that violent crime has risen in Washington since its post-pandemic peak in 2023.

The nation’s capital, like the country overall, has been plagued by an uptick in violent crimes in 2020, where there was a nationwide 30 percent increase in murders compared to the year prior.

Shoplifting crimes and attacks on government employees have persisted in DC even since, paving the way for Trump’s revelation Monday that he was federalizing the local police department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.

The law allows the commander-in-chief to assume control of the capital’s police force in the event of an emergency.

He hailed the occasion as DC’s ‘Liberation Day’ in his announcement.

He has repeatedly called Washington ‘horribly run’. During his campaign last year, he promised to ‘restore’ the capital. 

Trump previously deployed the federal government to Los Angeles in June, after protesters pushed back against his immigration enforcement. Gov. Gavin Newsom sued in response. The case goes to trial this week.