Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that would send national guard troops into Memphis, in a \u201creplica\u201d of the administration\u2019s expanding military-led response to urban crime in Democratic-run cities.<\/p>\n
The move was welcome by Tennessee\u2019s Republican governor, Bill Lee, who stood behind Trump in the Oval Office as he signed a presidential memo establishing a Memphis Safe Task Force.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to fix that just like we did Washington,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Announcing the taskforce in an Oval Office meeting, Trump said the troops would work alongside federal authorities from various agencies, including the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice); the US Marshall\u2019s service and the Department of Justice. In his remarks on Monday, the president cited a slew of crime statistics and vowed to end the \u201csavagery\u201d and to \u201cmake Memphis<\/a> safe again\u201d.<\/p>\n Lee thanked the president for the deployment. \u201cI\u2019m tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n Trump told Lee that the crime-fighting crackdown \u201cwill be your proudest moment\u201d and predicted that crime in the city would \u201cplummet\u201d within weeks.<\/p>\n Trump was also joined at the Oval Office signing by the state\u2019s Republican senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.<\/p>\n Trump deployed national guard troops to Washington last month and federalized the city\u2019s police force to \u201ccrack down\u201d on crime in the nation\u2019s capitol. Violent crime was already at a 30-year low in the city.<\/p>\n Speculation had centered on Chicago as Trump\u2019s next city to send in the national guard and other federal authorities. But the administration has faced fierce resistance from Illinois\u2019s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, and the city\u2019s Democratic leaders.<\/p>\n