What he called them · 2016 campaign · № 49
Began calling Chicago 'worse than Afghanistan,' a line he repeated for nearly a decade
“More than 3,000 people have been shot in Chicago since January -- think of that -- since January, 3000 people. That's like worse than the war-torn nations that you're looking at. That's worse than Afghanistan.”
- Said
- , Campaign rally, High Point, North Carolina
- Subject
- Chicago
- Target
- American cities
- Place
- Chicago
- Topic
- Justice & the courts
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
Trump made the comparison repeatedly in September 2016, including in Colorado Springs (Sept. 17) and on Fox News (Sept. 21). DNAinfo Chicago called it misleading, citing Afghanistan's 2015 homicide rate of 33.3 per 100,000 against Chicago's 18.1. He kept using the line: July 31, 2020 ('far worse than Afghanistan'), June 26, 2021, April 23, 2022, Aug. 20 and Aug. 22, 2024 ('That's a war zone'), and Sept. 12, 2025 ('That's worse than Afghanistan... There's no city like that').