As Donald Trump returned to Michigan to speak about crime, he deliberately ignored the truth: Crime is down.
Standing under a banner that read “Make America Safe Again” on Tuesday, Trump spoke about law and order and a so-called “Kamala crime wave” occurring at levels “nobody has ever seen before.” But when journalists tried to ask him about that claim, he got scared.
According to The Detroit News, the Trump team had originally agreed to sit down for an interview with their newspaper Tuesday. However, after reporters pushed the former president about spreading lies about Michigan’s crime data, “a campaign aide said the presidential candidate no longer had time for an interview after the speech.”
Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn’t show any crime wave phenomenon. In the two years since the former president left office, violent crime has continued to drop and return to pre-pandemic levels.
Michigan specific data also fails to show any spike in violent crime under a Democratic administration. Homicides in Detroit are down to their lowest total since 1966, according to police data reviewed by The Detroit News. But Trump doesn’t want to talk about that. So much so that he’s dodging interviews with local journalists about crime.
“Facts don’t matter when it comes to him,” Democratic state Representative Tyrone Carter, a former sheriff, told The Detroit News. “It’s about telling a story that benefits you.”
