The numbers are the story — and the politics are the subtext.
Arrests by FBI agents surged nearly 200 percent in 2025, according to statistics the bureau provided exclusively to Breitbart News. FBI Director Kash Patel said the increase from former President Joe Biden’s last year in office to President Donald Trump’s first year back in office reflects a stark difference in leadership and priorities.
“These are the kind of numbers that truly show what law enforcement can do when leadership gives them support,” Patel said in a statement provided exclusively to Breitbart News along with the statistics.
“In just one year under President Trump, this FBI has built historic partnerships all across the country and delivered nearly 200% more arrests at the federal level – taking down violent gangs, drug trafficking organizations, organized crime networks, and more. That’s an astounding increase that can only be possible with a President who lets good cops be cops and an administration working every single day to make America safer.”
The FBI reported 67,000 arrests in 2025 — specifically from Jan. 20, 2025 to Jan. 20, 2026 — compared with 22,500 in 2024, from Jan. 20, 2024 to Jan. 20, 2025.
That represents an increase of 197 percent.
The bureau also provided a chart to Breitbart News showing the contrast between Biden’s final year and Trump’s first year back.
Beyond the top-line arrest totals, the FBI told Breitbart News this same period coincided with a 20 percent drop in the national murder rate.
The bureau also said Trump’s FBI has already captured five of the Top Ten Most Wanted fugitives in one year — four in 2025 and one in early 2026. By comparison, the FBI said Biden’s FBI captured four Top Ten Most Wanted fugitives during Biden’s entire term.
The FBI also said it disrupted at least 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises, a 210 percent increase over Biden’s last year. And it reported seizing more than 2,000 kilos of fentanyl — enough, it claimed, to kill 130 million Americans — a 31 percent increase in volume versus Biden’s last year.
The bureau added that more than 6,000 child victims have been located in the past year — a 22 percent increase over Biden’s last year in office.
The FBI said much of the surge in enforcement activity reflected targeted resource pushes, including Operation Summer Heat, which the bureau said led to more than 9,000 arrests last summer.
Finally, the FBI told Breitbart News that Nihilistic Violent Extremism arrests are up 490 percent, while espionage arrests are up 35 percent.
A single year’s tally — presented as proof that when Washington changes hands, the street can change with it.
