A video published by Protect Our Care presents Donald Trump as saying that three people died each week in the Lincoln Memorial basin. This presentation is misleading. In the full passage of his speech of November 2, 2026, the American president talks about crime in Washington. The place where he spoke was confused with the subject of his statement.
What the shared video shows
In theReel Facebook by Protect Our CareDonald Trump appears in front of the Lincoln Memorial basin, with a white « USA » cap. The inlaid text states that it refers to three weekly deaths in this basin. The caption accompanying the publication states: « This is in fact, false », that is, « This is actually false ».
The audit shall cover this specific assignment. The image allows us to situate the speech, but it is not enough to establish to which deaths the speaker refers. To determine this, you must find the passage before the sentence and the one following it.
In the full speech, we are talking about Washington
TheWhite House published a page dedicated to this interventiondated 2 November 2026. Thefull transcript of Factba.se, broadcast by Roll Call, allows to place the sentence in its sequence.
In the timed segment from 17 min 07 s to 17 min 37 s by Factba.se, Trump states first that crime has dropped, then presents Washington as a city that has become safe. It is immediately after this assessment that he declares: « We were losing, on average, to death three people a week », i.e. that on average three people died each week. He then thanked the National Guard and the military. The next passage deals with the removal of criminals from the capital.
The basin is therefore not designated as the place of these deaths in this passage. The sentences that frame the excerpt refer to security in the city. The timetables cited here are those of the transcription, not of the markers checked in the White House video player.
An on-site report confirms this context
This context is also documented by a contemporary source of speech. In itspress report sent on 2 November at 2:20 p.m. Washington time, correspondent Gerren Keith Gaynor reports that Trump referred to three weekly deaths « in the district », therefore in the District of Columbia. He links this statement with his remarks about criminals and his action against delinquency.
This testimony of the present journalist is consistent with the transcript. He does not describe any statements about people drowning in the Reflecting Pool.
Crime figures remain a separate issue
Re-establishing the subject of the declaration is not about validating the numerical balance sheet presented by Donald Trump. In the same passage, he mentioned a decrease in crime of up to 90-91%, without specifying the period of comparison.
Themetropolitan Police statistics Department consulted on 3 November 2026have compared since the beginning of the year with the corresponding period of 2025. There were 86 homicides compared to 116, a 26% decrease. The total number of offences followed decreased by 11%, while the category of violent crimes increased by 12%. This annual comparison therefore does not correspond to a general decrease of 90-91%.
The police table also shows 187 homicides for all of 2024 and 127 for 2025, approximately 3.6 and 2.4 per week. Without a reference period specified by Trump, it cannot be attributed with certainty its figure of three to one of those years. These police data are provisional and may be revised.
The verdict: a misleading presentation
The Reel does not say that Trump announced three deaths a week in the Lincoln Memorial basin.The text added to the image imposes this reading, while the context of the speech and the report of the journalist present place the deaths evoked at the Washington scale, in a development on crime.
The fact-check therefore establishes a bad attribution of the word. He does not certify the figure of three weekly deaths, the period of which remains indeterminate, or the percentages of decline advanced by the President.
Audit completed November 3, 2026. The crime data cited correspond to the status of the official table on that date.
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