“Knife crime has turned London into a war zone.”
President Trump, NRA speech, April 2018; repeated in office, 2025–26.
Verdict: True but weaponised
At the peak, you were as likely to be stabbed to death in America.
This one starts from something true. Knife offences did rise sharply through the 2010s, peaked around 2017/18, and are still a serious problem. The war zone is where it goes wrong.
In the year he said it, the American homicide rate was 5.3 per 100,000 and Britain’s was 1.8. Fatal stabbings specifically ran at almost exactly the same rate per head in both countries. Since then London’s teenage homicide has fallen 73% from its 2021 level, to eight in 2025. In the year to March 2026 knife crime in London fell 15%, and fewer people were killed with a knife in England and Wales than in any year since 1991.
- 2017/18
- UK homicide 1.8/100k vs US 5.3/100k
- Fatal stabbings
- about 0.49 per 100k in both countries that year
- 2025
- teen homicide down 73% since 2021
- Year to Mar 2026
- London knife crime down 15%; knife homicides in England & Wales lowest since 1991
