July 12, 2021- 7:23 p.m.
The former president then likened the crime rates in the U.S. to violence in Afghanistan, claiming that while 260 people were shot in Chicago, “in Afghanistan, you don’t have 260 people shot.”
“What’s terrible is in Chicago you have 200 — think of it — 260 people were shot last, 260 people. In Afghanistan, you don’t have 260 people shot. In fact, by the way, in the last year in Afghanistan, we didn’t lose one soldier,” Trump said.
“But we didn’t have a person shot. We didn’t have one soldier killed in Afghanistan for over a year,” Trump added. He also previously made the comparison between Chicago and Afghanistan while president.
“You have to give the police back their authority,” the former president told Fox News. “You know, the police can stop this.”
Trump has frequently objected to the “defund the police” calls adopted by some progressive Democrats amid nationwide protests over police misconduct.
Violent crime rates in the U.S. are still tracking lower than previous decades, but the spike has sparked newfound attention on the issue.
Trump said cities struggling with a rise in crime have to “give police back their authority.”
The murder rate in the U.S. increased from 5 per 100,000 people in 2019 to around 6.2 per 100,000 in 2020 as of last month, according to preliminary data from the FBI.
