In a jaw-dropping moment at this week’s White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt fessed up to something explosive: “We reconfigured the numbers.” With that admission, the Trump administration has reignited the controversy in Washington, D.C., and the nation at large.
Leavitt’s confession came under fire during a Tuesday press briefing when a reporter grilled her on President Trump’s vow to rid the capital of “slums.” In her explosive defense, she insisted that the president wasn’t targeting neighborhoods, but “the most dangerous communities, neighborhoods, and streets in the city where violence has ravaged these communities and taken the lives of far too many law-abiding D.C. residents.”
Leavitt blasted The Washington Post’s so-called “fact-based” crime maps as nothing more than “accounts they’ve heard on the street, not actual statistics and data.” Then came the bombshell line: “So we went and reconfigured the numbers, and, as I said, half, nearly half of all the non-illegal-alien-related arrests have occurred in Wards 7 and 8.”
That stunning admission now sits squarely at the center of a federal probe. On Tuesday, The Washington Post confirmed that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department over allegations that crime data was manipulated to justify the ramped-up federal presence.
President Trump wasted no time rolling out the red carpet for conspiracy. In a nightly social-media tirade, he accused D.C. of peddling “Fake Crime numbers” to paint a false picture of safety.
🚨BREAKING MELTDOWN: Karoline Leavitt attacks the press after Trump’s summit, accusing the media of “ROOTING AGAINST PEACE.”
So far we’ve heard ZERO deals, ZERO wins, and ZERO progress. She’s covering for Trump’s fragile ego. pic.twitter.com/ZsGhLEtaWm
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 19, 2025
Meanwhile, the Justice Department probe is gaining speed. Authorities are investigating claims that the MPD’s crime data was massaged, potentially to stave off federal control while creating the illusion of declining violence. This follows the suspension of MPD commander Michael Pulliam, who’s accused of being at the center of data manipulation allegations.
But here’s the kicker, actual crime data paints a very different picture. Independent reports show that violent crime, including homicides, robberies, and assaults, has plummeted sharply in 2024 and 2025, placing violent crime at a 30-year low.
As for the arrests, a mid-August surge included 212 non-immigration-related arrests, with nearly half concentrated in Wards 7 and 8, exactly the neighborhoods Leavitt cited in her “reconfigured” statement.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said Russian President Vladimir Putin promised President Trump that he would have a direct meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The comments at the White House press briefing come as Ukraine works to come to… pic.twitter.com/m2HQ56c7Iu
— The Hill (@thehill) August 19, 2025
The farther critics look, the murkier it gets. Time Magazine calls Trump’s crime rhetoric “exaggerated and dire,” meant to justify a federal crackdown, but well at odds with downward-trending crime statistics. The Guardian notes that despite claims of rampant violence, crime is at a 30-year low, yet a heavy federal presence is being deployed, reportedly in low-crime, high-profile tourist areas.
So what does this mean? With Leavitt’s words echoing across D.C., and now the Justice Department’s investigation digging deeper into potentially falsified crime figures, the capital finds itself at the center of a political and data-driven maelstrom. The revelation that “We reconfigured the numbers” wasn’t just a slip-up, it may be the smoking gun lawmakers, journalists, and local leaders have been searching for.
Stay tuned, what began as fierce federal bravado is quickly collapsing under the weight of its own manipulated data.
