President Donald Trump said violence in Chicago had “never been worse” following a weekend in which dozens of people were shot, but the city’s latest police data shows violent crime is down overall this year and remains well below its recent peaks. It has never been worse!” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social, saying 41 people had been shot and two killed over the weekend. He called on Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov.
JB Pritzker, both Democrats, to request federal assistance and warned that the city would “die” without it. Trump was referring to a violent weekend in Chicago in which at least 41 people were shot, three fatally, according to police. The victims included 15 people wounded in a mass shooting in Washington Park.
The weekend’s bloodshed underscored the continuing toll of gun violence in Chicago. But a single weekend does not establish whether violence is at record levels, and the broader trend presented by the city’s crime statistics is more complex. The Chicago Police Department’s latest citywide report, which does not include the weekend cited by Trump, shows that some measures of violence have risen slightly from last year but most remain below the levels recorded in recent years.
JB Pritzker, a Democrat, rejected Trump’s remarks in a statement to Newsweek when asked for comment. His office called the administration “the same federal administration that launched a lawless, lethal invasion on Illinois and gutted funding for gun violence prevention in the U.S.” The statement added: “Trump is not fighting crime—he is committing and enabling it.” Newsweek also contacted the White House, the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office via email, for comment. Chicago Police Department figures present a mixed picture when 2026 is compared with last year, but they do not show violence at record levels.
The department recorded 283 murders through August 23, up 4 percent from 271 during the same period in 2025. That total, however, was 27 percent lower than in 2024, 33 percent lower than in 2023 and 37 percent lower than in 2022. Shooting incidents were down even compared with last year, falling 2 percent from 968 to 945.
The 2026 figure was also 38 percent below the comparable total in 2024, 42 percent below 2023 and 49 percent below 2022. Across the four violent offenses listed in the weekly report—murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery and aggravated battery—police recorded 9,174 complaints through Aug. 23. That was about 10 percent fewer than the 10,175 recorded over the same period in 2025.
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