Trump Claims Baltimore Homicide Rate Higher Than Central American Countries And Afghanistan

On Thursday, President Donald Trump held a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. The president’s rally comes on the heels of the most recent Democratic presidential debates that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

During his speech, the president criticized the way in which Democratic politicians have allegedly governed the "inner cities.” He once again condemned the mismanagement of Baltimore, stating that the homicide rate in the city is higher than that of several Central American nations:

While Republicans are working every day to build up our country, the rage-filled Democrat Party is trying to tear America apart. The Democrat Party is now being led by four Left-wing extremists who reject everything that we hold dear. No one has paid a higher price for the far-Left’s destructive agenda than Americans living in our nation's inner cities. They have paid a dear price. You see what's happening; you see our inner cities. We spend billions and billions and billions for years and years and years, and it's stolen money, and it's wasted money, and it's a shame. For decades, these communities have been run exclusively by Democrat politicians, and it's been total one-party control of the inner cities – for a hundred years it's been one-party control, and look at them. We can name one after another, but I won't do that because I don't want to be controversial ...

The homicide rate in Baltimore is significantly higher than El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, I believe it's higher than – [asks audience] give me a place that you think is pretty bad. Give me a place – the guy says Afghanistan. I believe it's higher than Afghanistan in our country. Think of that. I believe we'll check the numbers, and if we're wrong, they will tell us tomorrow. It’ll be headlines: "Trump exaggerated." I do believe the rate is higher than Afghanistan, yet Democrats, and they've run it for many years, want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on illegal migrants instead of supporting their own struggling communities.

In 2018, Baltimore’s homicide rate was 51.3 per 100,000 residents, according to a city CBS affiliate. 

In 2017, the homicide rate stood at 55.8 per 100,000 residents, reports City Data. In 2015 and 2016, it was 55.4 and 51.4, respectively. Between 2008 and 2014, the city’s homicide rate was significantly lower, averaging 35.2 per 100,000.

According to the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), El Salvador’s 2018 homicide rate stood at 50 per 100,000 residents. In 2015, 2016, and 2017, the nation’s homicide rates were 103, 81, and 60, respectively.

From January through November of 2018, Honduras’ homicide rate was approximately 40 per 100,000 residents, according to InSight Crime. It was 42.8 per 100,000 in 2017.

In Guatemala, the homicide rate was 22.4 per 100,000 residents in 2018, according to InSight Crime. It was 26.1 per 100,000 in 2017.

President Trump is correct when he suggests that the homicide rate in Baltimore is higher than in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. As for Afghanistan, the president is also correct. According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, as recently as 2016, the homicide rate in Afghanistan was 7.4 per 100,000 residents.