"What's the most dangerous place in the world you've been to?" journalist Robert Draper asked Trump. Laughing, the Queens-bred Manhattanite remarked, "Brooklyn." | Getty Trump: Some places in America are most dangerous in world

Donald Trump has never been to Iraq, but the presumptive Republican nominee suggested that one need not travel that far to visit the most dangerous places on Earth.

In a New York Times Magazine piece published Wednesday, Trump was asked by journalist Robert Draper whether he had ever traveled to Iraq. "Never!" Trump responded, with Draper writing that he sounded "horrified by the thought."


"What's the most dangerous place in the world you've been to?" Draper asked.

Laughing, the Queens-bred Manhattanite remarked, "Brooklyn," before remarking, "No ... there are places in America that are among the most dangerous in the world. You go to places like Oakland. Or Ferguson. The crime numbers are worse. Seriously."

But on the latest annual list of the world's 50 most dangerous cities in terms of homicides, compiled by the Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice in Mexico, there are only four. The U.S. city with the highest violent crime rate is St. Louis, in 15th place with a murder rate of 59.23 per 100,000 inhabitants. Baltimore has the 19th-highest homicide rate, at 54.98 per 100,000, followed by Detroit in 28th place (43.89 per 100,000) and New Orleans (41.44 per 100,000).

Of the 50 cities on the 2015 list, 41 are in Latin America, including Caracas, Venezuela, the city with the highest homicide rate, at 119.87 out of 100,000 inhabitants. Cape Town, South Africa, is the only non-Latin American city in the top ten. Baghdad is not on the list, nor is Oakland, California, or Ferguson, Missouri, which is a northern suburb of St. Louis.

The country with the most cities on the list: Brazil, with 21, followed by 8 in Venezuela, four in the U.S., four in South Africa, three in Colombia and two in Honduras.

POLITICO reached out to the mayors of both Oakland and Ferguson on Tuesday for comment.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf responded, “The most dangerous place in America is Donald Trump’s mouth.”