U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tenn., to combat crime, following his administration’s unprecedented police takeover in Washington, D.C., last month.
Trump has sought to make crime a central issue, though violent crime rates have fallen in many cities. His crackdown on Democrat-led municipalities has spurred protests, including a demonstration by several thousand in Washington last weekend.
“We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled,” Trump said in an interview with the Fox News Fox and Friends program. “We’re going to fix that, just like we did Washington.”
Trump said the Memphis mayor, a Democrat, was “happy” with the move. Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, confirmed the deployment in a news conference Friday.
“I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Young said, while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.”
New Orleans may be next
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, confirmed the deployment was coming and said he planned to speak with the president Friday to work out details of the mission. He said he was still ironing out the best roles for the National Guard alongside the FBI, the state Highway Patrol, city police and other law enforcement agencies.
Memphis, a city of 611,000 people along the Mississippi River, has one of the highest violent crime rates in the United States, according to FBI statistics. Some 24 per cent of residents live in poverty, more than double the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The U.S. Justice Department sent federal agents to help fight violent crime in the city in 2020, during Trump’s first term in office.
Trump said he might also send federal personnel to New Orleans which, like Memphis, is a Democratic-leaning city in a Republican-controlled state. He has threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, but so far has not done so.
Protests have erupted in Chicago after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a federal crackdown, including sending National Guard troops and expanding deportations.
Trump argues that crime is blighting American cities like Washington, and in recent weeks placed the U.S. capital city’s police department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel to patrol the city’s streets.
Justice Department data showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington.