President Donald Trump declared during his last Cabinet meeting that his administration oversaw what he called the “largest drop in the murder rate ever recorded” in 2025, while also touting dramatic improvements in border security and public safety.

“This team has achieved more than most other administrations achieve in eight years,” Trump said, emphasizing the White House’s commitment to transparency by allowing press access to the discussions.

The president opened the meeting by highlighting what he described as the transformation of America’s southern border under his administration.

“We took the most dangerous, unsafe, violent, and open border in the world — anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “And created the most secure border in the history of our country.”

Trump pointed to figures indicating that no illegal immigrants had been admitted into the United States over the past 12 months, citing data he noted came from sources not politically friendly to his administration.

“Zero illegal aliens admitted to the United States in the last 12 months,” Trump said. “I don’t know how it can be zero, but they say it’s zero.”

The president then shifted to crime statistics, announcing what he described as historic progress on violent crime.

“For the last 12 months, in 2025, we achieved the largest drop in the murder rate ever recorded,” Trump stated. “To the lowest level in 125 years.”

Trump credited the decline in part to the administration’s aggressive efforts to remove violent criminals who entered the country during the Biden administration’s border policies.

According to Trump, more than 11,888 individuals accused of murder had been allowed into the United States under previous immigration enforcement failures.

“We’ve gotten a lot of them out,” Trump said. “We’ve gotten some. We put them in jail.”

The president added that many of the offenders were allegedly responsible for multiple killings.

“Over half of that stunning figure committed more than one murder,” Trump said. “That’s what they allowed in.”

For conservatives, the remarks reinforced one of the central arguments of Trump’s second term: stronger border enforcement and aggressive law-and-order policies directly improve public safety. Republicans have repeatedly argued that weak immigration policies under the Biden administration contributed to rising crime concerns and allowed dangerous individuals into American communities.

Trump’s comments also reflect the administration’s broader effort to connect border security with crime reduction, a message that continues resonating strongly with Republican voters nationwide.

Critics, as usual, are likely to challenge aspects of the administration’s numbers and rhetoric. But politically, the White House appears confident that Americans are responding to visible declines in violent crime alongside tougher immigration enforcement measures. 

And after years of hearing politicians insist crime concerns were somehow exaggerated or politically inconvenient to discuss, many voters are likely paying close attention to one thing above all else: whether their communities feel safer now than they did before.

According to Trump, the answer is yes — and the administration intends to keep making that case heading into the next phase of his presidency.

This is what we voted for.