‘A little fight with wife’: What Trump said on domestic violence; why it sparked backlash

US president Donald Trump drew criticism on Monday after suggesting that some cases of domestic violence were “lesser” crimes and should not be counted in crime statistics. Speaking at an event, Trump accused his opponents of exaggerating crime figures to damage his record. He said, “Much lesser things, things that take place in the home, they call crime. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime,” drawing laughter from parts of the audience. The remarks were condemned by women’s rights groups and political leaders. The national organisation for women (NOW) said Trump was “blind to the domestic violence crisis in America.” Its president, Kim Villanueva, said, “Donald Trump showed us again what’s in his heart when he called domestic violence a ‘lesser crime.’” Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes, also responded on X, writing, “Yes, Mr president, domestic violence is a crime.” Data from the US centers for disease control and prevention shows that around 41 percent of women and 26 percent of men in the country face sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking from an intimate partner during their lifetime.