White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington (AP Photo)The White House has cited New Delhi’s relatively “low murder rate” to underscore the scale of gun violence in Chicago, as it seeks to push for greater federal intervention in the city.Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for President Donald Trump, said Chicago’s murder rate in 2024 was nearly 15 times higher than that of the Indian capital. While Chicago recorded 25.5 homicides per 100,000 residents, New Delhi reported 1.48, according to official statistics.However, Leavitt did not cite the sources for the data she provided. Notably, the National Crime Records Bureau has not released crime statistics for India since 2022.Leavitt’s comparison of Chicago to Delhi as well as Islamabad’s homicide rates came a day after a school shooting in Minnesota, which resulted in the deaths of two students and injured 18 others.“It’s been less than a day since the tragedy happened and we have federal law enforcement on the ground assisting local law enforcement… As for Chicago and cracking down on crime… we have seen the Governor of Illinois parading out there saying that there’s nothing wrong with Chicago… the residents of Chicago beg to differ and the statistics beg to differ,” said Leavitt in a press conference on Thursday.She added that Chicago has had the most number of murders than any US city for 13 consecutive years. “For seven consecutive years, Chicago has had the highest murder rate among US cities with more than one million people. In 2024… Chicago’s murder rate per capita was three times higher than Los Angeles and nearly five times higher than New York City. That’s more than double the murder rate in Islamabad and nearly 15 times more than Delhi,” said Leavitt.This is not the first time the Trump administration has brought up these numbers. On August 11, the White House’s official X account shared crime rates across the world, comparing them to Washington DC. The graph showed the US Capital’s crime rate to be much higher than Bogota, Mexico City, Islamabad and Delhi.Story continues below this adWashington had 27.64 murders per 100,000 people, was shown as the deadliest, followed by cities such as Islamabad, which stood fourth on the list at 9.2.Delhi, meanwhile, ranked ninth on the chart, with only London and Madrid reporting lower murder rates.The Trump administration has been bringing these numbers up to defend its policy of bringing federal control over state police departments and deploying the National Guard in cities with high crime rates.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd