evidence: Former President Donald Trump said FBI data that show homicides and other violent crimes trending down are "fake numbers." They’re not. [...] The FBI statistics contradict Trump’s campaign narrative, repeated at a May 1 rally in Wisconsin, about rampant and rising violent crime in the U.S. And polls that show most Americans believe crime is on the increase. But that doesn’t mean the data are wrong or "fudged," as Trump put it. [...] According to the FBI’s preliminary 2023 crime report, violent crimes dropped 5.7% between 2022 and 2023, and the number of murders declined 13.2%. That’s based on data from 79% of law enforcement agencies in the U.S., representing higher participation than any year during Trump’s presidency. Murders and violent crime went up in 2020, Trump’s last year in office, and murders continued to rise in 2021, albeit to a lesser extent, as violent crime ticked down a bit. Both have been declining since, according to FBI and other crime data.