'No murders in North Korea too': CNN brutally bashes Trump claims about DC crime and murder-free streak

A CNN fact-checker shredded a deluge of Donald Trump’s false claims about crime in Washington, D.C. During Trump’s second Oval Office press conference of the day on Monday, the president defended his deployment of the National Guard and takeover of the police force in the nation’s capital, boasting an 11-day murder-free period.

However, a new poll has revealed that Trump's moves are unpopular among the Americans. But, Trump continued to claim that, under his watch, the city has transformed from “the most dangerous place in the world” to the “safest place” in under two weeks.

Towards the end of Trump’s White House meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday, CNN News Central brought in senior reporter Daniel Dale to fact-check Trump's claims.


Asked whether Trump’s claim about D.C.’s first murder-free week in “many years,” Dale responded that “it is not accurate,” citing other similar stretches this year in the district.

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“There’s currently been an 11-day stretch without a reported homicide, but similar streaks have happened before,” he said. Earlier this year, in February and March, the district experienced a 16-day period with no reported homicides. “So the president is exaggerating again.”

Dale also criticized another claim as “not even close to true”—that crime in the capital was at an all-time high when he took office.

While D.C.’s murder rate two years ago reached levels not seen since the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, it has since declined sharply under Chief Pamela Smith, who was appointed in 2023.

'No murders in North Korea too'

CNN anchor Audie Cornish suggested on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., crime crackdown makes him look like a North Korean dictator, as per Fox News. During her "CNN This Morning" report on how Trump’s critics think deploying U.S. National Guard troops in the nation’s capital to handle crime makes him like a dictator, Cornish joked that the murder rate in North Korea’s dictatorship is low, too.

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"There's probably no murders in North Korea, too. But I don't want to be presumptuous," she said after noting a New York Post cover stating that there have been zero murders in D.C. following Trump’s crackdown that started earlier this month.

From August 14, Washington, D.C., went 12 consecutive days without a homicide following the launch of Trump’s new operation to curb the "growing crime". That streak came to a tragic end early Tuesday morning when a man was killed by a gunshot.

Cornish opened the segment highlighting Trump’s latest move in his D.C. crackdown: “Deploying over 2,000 National Guard troops isn’t enough. The president has now signed an executive order creating specialized Guard units tasked with quelling civil disturbances. Meanwhile, he has threatened to send troops into Chicago, drawing criticism from Democratic leaders nationwide, who accuse him of authoritarian overreach.”

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On August 11, Trump took federal control of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) through the ‘Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful’ task force. Using emergency powers granted under the Home Rule Act, the president can federalize the MPD for up to 30 days, unless Congress decides to extend it.

In addition, the president has ordered more than 2,000 National Guard troops deployed in the city, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth authorizing most of them to carry firearms as of this past Sunday.

As Cornish noted, Trump has also threatened to deploy troops to other major U.S. cities like Chicago to clean up crime. The anchor played a video of Trump in the Oval Office commenting on those who have accused him of playing dictator with these deployments.

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"And they say, 'We don't need them. Freedom, freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator.' A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe we'd like a dictator.' I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense, and I'm a smart person," Trump said, adding, "And when I see what's happening to our cities, and then you send in troops, instead of being praised, they're saying, 'You're trying to take over the republic.' These people are sick."

Following the clip, Cornish quipped, "No word yet on which Americans actually want a dictator, but here's the governor of Illinois in response."