Trump Says North Carolina ‘One of the Worst’ on Crime: What Data Shows

President Donald Trump blamed former Democratic Governor and current Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper for surging crime in North Carolina during a campaign-related stop for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley on Wednesday, saying the Tar Heel State has become "one of the most violent and one of the worst in the whole nation," which Cooper's campaign spokesperson told Newsweek was "false."

“Independent fact-checkers have called these attacks false – Michael Whatley is getting desperate and it’s shameful that he’s using heinous crimes to try to deceive North Carolinians," the spokesperson said, in part.

North Carolina was the backdrop of Trump's latest crime messaging during his rally in the battleground state. Midterm elections are commonly viewed as a test of the political environment facing the party in power, and the president's party has historically lost seats during midterm elections. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in both the House and Senate. The midterm is viewed as consequential for both Democrats and Republicans, as the GOP hopes to maintain power and build on key legislative policies and the Democrats hope to take control back. The race between Cooper and Whatley is rated lean Democrat by Cook Political Report and recent polling shows Cooper ahead.

Available crime data paints a more nuanced picture than Trump painted. According to the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, North Carolina has recorded 24,686 aggravated assault offenses between September 2025 and September 2026. While that places the state among those with higher numbers of reported violent crimes, raw counts largely highlight North Carolina as one of the country's more populated states. Other states, including Florida and Michigan, have higher offense totals, data observed by Newsweek shows.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation also reported that violent crime declined statewide in 2024 year over year, with decreases in murder, aggravated assault and robbery rates. The trend aligns with national findings that show violent crime is falling in the United States, even as public concern about crime remains a notable political and campaign issue.

According to the FBI, the national violent crime rate has dropped 9 percent from June 2025 to May 2026, with the murder rate dropping 18.7 percent, the robbery rate now at -19.4 percent, the rape rate at -10 percent and the aggravated assault rate at -6.2 percent.

Newsweek reached out to Whatley's campaign via email on Wednesday night for comment.

Trump leaned into crime during his speech, highlighting the death of Iryna Zarutska on a train in the state last year. "The animal who murdered Iryna Zarutska should never have been on your streets; after 14 arrests he should have been locked up for many, many years," Trump said.

"That monster and countless others were set loose to prey on the people of North Carolina...I mean, I know North Carolina so well, so much crime here," Trump added. "I mean it's on the national news...it's your governors, but it's Cooper. Cooper was really bad."

DeCarlos Brown Jr. was charged in the 23-year-old Ukrainian woman's murder. According to local outlets, he was recently found incompetent to stand trial and is now in federal custody.

During Trump's stop in the Tar Heel State, he also said, "For years, pro-crime politicians like Roy Cooper have tried to bully you into silence while they turned your cities into blood-soaked killing fields, flooded your communities with migrant criminals, destroyed your schools with gangs and drugs and filled your streets with lawlessness, filth and squalor...but those days are over."

Cooper's spokesperson told Newsweek, "While Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and signing tough on crime laws as governor, Michael Whatley has continued to knowingly appoint, campaign with and elevate convicted child sex predators who spent time in prison and is celebrating the support of a President who released over 13,000 prisoners during COVID without a court order.”

The Associated Press reported that Pastor Daimon L. King led a prayer at a campaign stop for Whatley earlier this month and is a registered sex offender. Whatley campaign spokesman DJ Griffin told the outlet that King was not known to the Republican nominee and the event “was NOT planned nor organized by the Whatley campaign nor did the campaign invite any of the guests.”

Trump touted his administration's immigration policy and the war in Iran by claiming to have blocked their ability to obtain a nuclear weapon and floating a dividend of $5,000 to every adult in America if the GOP wins the House and the Senate in the midterm. He also said he will return to North Carolina again before November.

According to the FBI's Crime Data Explorer dashboard, North Carolina's total aggravated assault offenses from September 2025 to September 2026 are 24,686. The number of clearances in the state is 11,145. The total number of homicide offenses is 573; there have been a recorded number of 2,623 rape offenses and 3,737 robbery offenses.

Comparatively, the data shows that New York from September 2025 to September 2026 so far has recorded 42,518 aggravated assault offenses, 357 homicide offenses, 2,839 rapes, and 14,508 robberies.

Florida has a recorded number of aggravated assault offenses of 35,794. The Sunshine State's homicide offenses total 560, 4,780 rape offenses, and 6,437 robbery offenses.

California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Michigan are in the top 5 of highest aggravated assault offenses by count from September 2025 to September 2026, according to the FBI data. North Carolina ranked number 7, according to Newsweek's analysis of the data.

Nationally, violent crime has had its largest year-to-year decline in almost 90 years, according to the Bureau.

While FBI data showed violent crime has fallen across the country, rates remain higher in certain portions. A previous Newsweek analysis of violent crime rates placed North Carolina among states with higher crime, although states including Arkansas, Alaska and Tennessee recorded higher rates.

Several states with the highest rates in the analysis had relatively small populations compared to the largest states in America, highlighting a notable difference between crime rates and total crime counts.

As of September 2026, North Carolina's aggravated assault offenses rate is 9.31, and the United States' offenses rate is 4.42. The FBI data is based on offenses per 100,000 people.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gray R. Thomas