Trump sparks outcry with comments seen as downplaying domestic violence

US President Donald Trump faced accusations of downplaying the seriousness of domestic violence Monday after he suggested some incidents were "lesser" crimes that should not be included in statistics.

The Republican leader, who claims to have restored order in Washington by deploying federal agents and soldiers, was criticizing his opponents for allegedly inflating crime figures to tarnish his record.

"Much lesser things, things that take place in the home, they call crime," Trump said during a speech on religious freedom.

"If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime," he added to some laughter from the audience, according to an AFP journalist present.

The National Organization for Women (NOW), a female rights group, criticized the US president for being "blind to the domestic violence crisis in America."

"Donald Trump showed us again what's in his heart when he called domestic violence a 'lesser crime,'" said NOW president Kim Villanueva.

Kris Mayes, the Democratic attorney general of Arizona, also responded on X: "Yes, Mr. President, domestic violence is a crime."

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 41 percent of women and 26 percent of men in the United States experience sexual violence, physical violence or stalking from an intimate partners during their lifetime.