President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about crime in Washington, D.C.—and, more specifically, about domestic violence—have ignited a fierce debate over the administration’s approach to public safety and its understanding of what constitutes a crime. The controversy began on September 8, 2025, when Trump addressed the Religious Liberty Commission’s meeting at the Museum of the Bible in downtown D.C. With National Guard troops still patrolling the streets, the president painted a picture of a city transformed by federal intervention, claiming that crime was “virtually nothing” since the deployment began. But it was his comments about domestic violence that drew the strongest reaction.
During his speech, Trump suggested that official crime statistics were being inflated by what he called “much lesser things. Things that take place in the home that they call crime.” He elaborated, “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime. See? So now I can’t claim [to have reduced crime in D.C. by] 100%.” According to reporting from The 19th, Trump’s implication was clear: domestic disputes, in his view, shouldn’t necessarily be counted as crimes in the same way as street violence or property offenses.
The backlash was swift and fierce. Advocates, lawmakers, and public officials condemned the president’s remarks as dismissive of the suffering endured by victims of domestic violence. “The DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence believes that intimate partner violence is a crime and more than a ‘little fight with the wife’ as President Trump stated earlier today,” said Dawn Dalton, the coalition’s executive director, in a statement quoted by The 19th. “Per federal and local statute, domestic violence is a crime and one that is not only a precursor to domestic violence homicides, but also a common factor in community violence, including mass shootings, where perpetrators often have a history of committing domestic violence.”
Casey Carter Swegman, director of public policy at the Tahirih Justice Center, added, “The idea that domestic abuse is serious and criminal is not up for debate. Words cannot take us backwards and the days of treating domestic and sexual violence as ‘private matters’ are long gone. Any attempt to minimize these crimes does not change the impact of domestic violence and cannot change the reality of crime statistics in Washington, D.C.”
Members of Congress also weighed in. Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, a survivor of domestic violence, called Trump’s comments “deeply offensive and disturbing.” She said, “Trump has a long history of violence against women that makes his dismissiveness unsurprising.” Rep. Debbie Dingell, another survivor, said, “We’ve been fighting for decades to remove the stigma around domestic violence, and this position from the president directly opposes those efforts.” Dingell shared her own experience, recalling, “Let me tell you, as someone who hid in a closet many times as a child, being tough on crime means keeping women and children safe in their own homes.”
Senator Mazie Hirono was equally blunt, writing on social media, “Despite being a convicted felon himself, Trump apparently still doesn’t know what a ‘real crime’ is. Domestic violence is a very REAL & serious crime. I guess we shouldn’t expect better from someone who pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted cops on January 6th...”
The White House, for its part, scrambled to contain the fallout. On September 9, 2025, press secretary Karoline Leavitt faced a barrage of questions from reporters. She insisted the president was not downplaying domestic violence, but rather criticizing the media for using such incidents to “undermine the great work that the federal task force is doing to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.” Leavitt said, “He wasn’t referring to crime. That’s exactly the point he was making.” Yet, in the same briefing, she referred to domestic violence as “crimes,” muddying the administration’s message and fueling further criticism.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson tried to shift the conversation, accusing the media of ignoring other violent crimes and touting the administration’s executive order, which she said “specifically took action against domestic violence.” According to Jackson, the order urged the Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate housing providers who don’t comply with requirements to “restrict tenants who engage in criminal activity,” including domestic violence.
Still, critics pointed to the administration’s broader record. The 19th reported that since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to restrict nonprofits’ access to federal domestic violence grants, laid off key officials, and destabilized prevention efforts nationwide. The administration also barred transgender women from women’s domestic abuse shelters—a move advocates warn makes trans women less safe.
The president’s comments came at a particularly sensitive time. October 2025 marks the 25th annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the 25th anniversary of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a landmark law that increased federal funding to combat domestic violence and recognized it as a public health and safety issue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2022 survey found that more than 4 in 10 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced physical or sexual violence or stalking by an intimate partner, underscoring the scope and seriousness of the problem.
Meanwhile, the president’s central claim—that crime in D.C. is “virtually nothing” since the National Guard arrived—has been challenged by local officials and business leaders. According to the police union, total crime in the city is down 21% since the federal occupation began, far short of the 87% reduction Trump touted. The White House reported more than 2,177 arrests since the takeover, but a New York Times analysis found this only slightly above previous rates.
Business owners and civic leaders have voiced their own concerns. Shawn Townsend, CEO of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, called the troop deployment “pandemic 2.0,” telling Axios that the presence of federal forces has driven away customers and tourism, hurting the local economy. “I've heard from folks that won't renew leases or even consider D.C.,” Townsend said. The Museum of the Bible, where Trump delivered his remarks, admitted to CNN that attendance had dropped since the occupation began.
Despite the administration’s insistence that its approach is making the city safer, no major local business group has endorsed the president’s efforts, and his threats to expand federal intervention to other cities like Baltimore, New York, Chicago, or New Orleans have met strong resistance from Democratic mayors and governors.
For many, the heart of the issue lies in the message sent by the nation’s highest office. As Susanna Saul, director of legal programs at Her Justice, put it, “By reducing domestic violence to a ‘little fight,’ President Trump revives a regressive view from an era when survivors were expected to endure abuse alone, without legal protections or public support. This does more than trivialize domestic abuse. It emboldens abusers to increase their violence and risks undoing decades of legal and cultural progress that have made safety a community responsibility, rather than a private burden.”
The debate over how to define and address crime in America’s cities is far from settled. But as the country prepares to mark a quarter-century of progress against domestic violence, the president’s words—and the reaction they’ve sparked—serve as a stark reminder of how easily that progress can be put at risk.
