WASHINGTON – The nation’s capital saw a monumental drop in murders in January 2026 compared to January 2025 following President Donald Trump’s establishment of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force and crime crackdown beginning last year.
According to a Friday report from the Washington Post, there was one documented murder in the nation’s capital between January 1 and January 27.
“D.C. hadn’t started a year with more than 10 days without a slaying in three decades. By this time last year, there had been nine homicides in the city,” the Post’s Emma Uber and Peter Hermann noted.
There was an over 80 percent decline in murders in January compared to January 2025, according to Clay Travis. Official D.C. crime statistics show that there were three recorded homicides to start the new year through Monday, February 2, 2026, a 73 percent drop from the 11 at that point in 2025.
“President Trump promised to make Washington, D.C. safe and beautiful again — now it is one of the safest cities in the country,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Breitbart News. “Thanks to President Trump’s successful federal law enforcement operation, our nation’s capital has seen a dramatic decrease in crime and homicide.”
“Cities across the country with out-of-control crime, like Chicago, should be begging for President Trump’s help,” Rogers added.
In March 2025, Trump took executive action to establish the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force. The task force was directed under the order to surge law enforcement presence in public areas and to “strictly enforce quality-of-life laws in public areas like drug use, unpermitted demonstrations, vandalism, and public intoxication,” the White House noted at the time.
The task force was also ordered to “maximize immigration enforcement to apprehend and deport dangerous illegal aliens, including monitoring D.C.’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”
On August 11, Trump announced he was federalizing control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and would surge the National Guard to D.C. As of 2026, the National Guard still has a strong presence on the streets of the nation’s capital.
Trump’s moves bore significant results, which were seen immediately and have persisted for nearly six months. In the first 11 days after federalizing the police department in comparison to the 11 days leading up to actions, there was an 83 percent drop in carjackings, a 37 percent fall in motor vehicle thefts, a more than 50 percent plummet in robberies, and a 50 percent drop in homicides, Breitbart News reported at the time.
Violent crime in 2025 was down 29 percent compared to 2024; burglaries, motor vehicle thefts, and thefts all saw double-digit percent decreases throughout the year.
From January 1 to February 2, 2026, compared to the same period in 2025, sex abuse crimes were down 57 percent, robberies were down 56 percent, and violent crime was down 37 percent in D.C. Burglaries dropped 41 percent, motor vehicle thefts dwindled 57 percent, theft fell 10 percent, and arson plunged 100 percent during that time.
