Trump Applauds FBI Leadership Under Patel and Bongino as Crime Plummets Across U.S.
President Donald J. Trump is once again demonstrating that leadership matters — especially when it comes to law and order.
In a powerful message on Truth Social Monday, President Trump praised FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino for returning the bureau to its foundational mission: locking up criminals and cleaning up America’s streets.
Citing a detailed report in The Federalist, Trump linked the recent plunge in violent crime rates — including what may be the lowest murder rate in U.S. history — to the no-nonsense leadership now at the helm of the FBI.
“The FBI, under the direction of Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, is back to the basics: Locking up criminals, and cleaning up America’s streets,” Trump wrote.
“We have the Greatest Law Enforcement professionals in the World, but ‘Politics’ and Corrupt Leadership often prevented them from doing their job. That is no longer the case, and now, they have been unleashed to do their jobs, and they are doing just that. Keep it up — MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!”
The Federalist piece, authored by renowned criminologist John R. Lott Jr. — author of More Guns, Less Crime — paints a stark contrast between the current administration’s success and the failures of the past.
“While we still have more than half a year to go, Kash Patel, the FBI’s director, says that the U.S. is on track to have the lowest murder rate ever,” Lott wrote. “The current record low occurred in 2014 when the FBI reported a murder rate of 4.45 per 100,000.”
Lott attributes the drop not only to smarter, decentralized law enforcement but also to President Trump’s aggressive deportation of criminal illegal aliens.
In a recent podcast, Director Patel emphasized a return to empowering law enforcement at every level:
“Let good cops be cops. I’m gonna let you, the agents, the police officers, the sheriffs, go out there and do the work you so badly want to do. And I’m gonna give you the resources you need to do it. And I’m gonna take away the politicization and weaponization … and that’s what we’ve done.”
Instead of stationing a third of FBI personnel in Washington, D.C., Patel has redeployed agents across the country, targeting areas suffering from high crime — an approach rooted in common sense and results.
A newly declassified document released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard highlights the stark contrast with the previous administration. Under Biden, the FBI was diverting its attention to "non-criminal" monitoring — including conservative Catholics, parents attending school board meetings, and anyone associated with Second Amendment symbolism.
Lott pointed to one particularly troubling example:
“One FBI memo was reportedly distributed to over 1,000 employees nationwide, instructing them to specifically target conservative Catholics,” he wrote.
He also noted that the Trump administration is taking aggressive steps to remove DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs from all federal agencies, especially law enforcement, signaling a return to merit and mission over ideology.
“You let law enforcement catch criminals, making it riskier for criminals to commit crime, and you will get less crime,” Lott added.
Data backs it up. Since President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, the FBI has partnered with ICE, DEA, and local police forces, logging over 1 million hours of joint operations that have led to the arrest of more than 10,000 illegal immigrants, many of whom crossed into the U.S. during Biden’s term.
These coordinated efforts are having a domino effect. As the Wall Street Journal reported, the sheer visibility of ICE operations has prompted many potential offenders to scale back activity to avoid arrest.
“Reducing crime isn’t rocket science,” Lott concluded. “If you make it riskier for criminals to commit crime, you will get less crime. Letting police focus on going after criminals matters. Getting serious about illegal aliens who are committing crimes can’t be ignored.”
With Patel and Bongino at the helm — and with the full backing of President Trump — the message is clear: America’s law enforcement is no longer handcuffed by politics.