An advisor to President Donald Trump made a startling admission Monday that the administration’s push to crack down on crime in major cities was driven less by data — and more by “a feeling.”
"Crime is not a data thing – it's a feeling thing," said a Trump advisor speaking anonymously to Axios. "Politicians don't understand that it's about how you feel when you walk on the subway platform."
The advisor’s comments come in the wake of the deadly stabbing on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina that left one dead and was captured on video that released Friday — a video that many in Trump’s orbit have seized on to advance Trump’s anti-crime messaging.
From Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, to right-wing political activists Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk, many in Trump’s circle took to social media over the weekend to allege that the stabbing victim was “collateral damage to the left” due to Democrats’ policies on crime.
Even Trump himself commented on the attack, with the advisor telling Axios that Trump would discuss the specific case not once, but multiple times as he continues to ramp up his threats to deploy federal troops to Democrat-led cities.
“This is exactly what he's talking about, and it's going to be an issue he's going to highlight,” the advisor said. “This is not just about North Carolina. Other campaigns will deal with this."
The Trump administration’s crime push comes despite FBI data showing violent crime fell to a 20-year low in 2024. And it’s this disconnect, the advisor suggested, that underscored why Trump is leaning heavily on the “feeling” of insecurity rather than statistics.
"It's not about whether you're a victim,” the advisor said. “It's about whether you feel you're a victim or not."