Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday President Donald Trump is “grateful” for the cooperation of local leaders in Memphis as the administration prepares to deploy the National Guard to address violent crime in the city when Memphis Mayor Paul Young seemed to suggest otherwise.
“Well, the President will be working with the local mayor and the governor in Tennessee to make sure that operations are streamlined and that we’re effective, and that we’re going after the worst of the worst, those criminals that are there, getting them off the streets and making it safer,” Noem said in an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, when asked on plans to send the National Guard into Memphis.
“So it’s good to have local leaders that understand the importance of the work that this President is doing,” she continued.
“The President is very engaged on this issue. He’s grateful for the partnership of those local leaders, and we’re looking forward to making a big difference there for the people that are in Tennessee.”
However, Mayor Young offered a starkly different account in an interview with CNN a day earlier, saying he was blindsided by the decision and does not support the deployment.
“I’m certainly not happy,” Young told CNN, referring to the deployment of federal troops. He said he only received definitive confirmation of the decision when President Trump publicly discussed it on national television.
On Friday, during an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Trump said he was sending National Guard troops to Memphis to combat the city’s high crime rates, calling it a “deeply troubled” place.
“We’re going to Memphis,” Trump said. “Deeply troubled,” he added, and suggested the response may escalate if needed.
“The deployment may go beyond the National Guard and could include the Army if needed,” Trump said.