President Trump announced Friday that Memphis would be the next city to get a federal policing surge — and the second following Washington, DC.
Tennessee’s second-largest metropolis, with a population of around 611,000 people, recorded 297 murders last year and has the nation’s highest violent crime rate among large cities.
Memphis is the next city to get a federal policing surge, President Trump announced. Fox News
According to FBI data, Memphis authorities recorded 2,501 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2024.
“We’re going to Memphis. [It is] deeply troubled and the mayor is happy. The Democrat mayor [Paul Young] is happy. And the [Republican] Governor [Bill Lee] is happy,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”
“Deeply troubled — we’re going to fix that, just like we did Washington. I would have preferred going to Chicago.”
Trump said the move was pitched to him by a friend who is a railroad executive and on the board of Memphis-based shipping giant FedEx.
“He said, ‘When I walk one block to my hotel, they won’t allow me to do it. They put me in an armored vehicle with bulletproof glass to take me one block.’ He said, ‘It’s so terrible.’”
Memphis Police Department officers are seen in tactical gear earlier this year. Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Trump also said he will “bring in the military too if we need.” SeanPavonePhoto – stock.adobe.com
Trump last month surged federal law enforcement and National Guard troops into Washington after high-profile instances of violent crime.
He has threatened for weeks to order a similar operation in Chicago, but has faced opposition from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents kicked off “Operation Midway Blitz” Monday targeting illegal immigrants with rap sheets in Chicago, but so far the federal surge is contained to border enforcement.
“So we’re going to Memphis. I’m just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out,” Trump said Friday.
“We’ll bring in the military, too, if we need it. But National Guard,” he went on. “Memphis is, look, it’s a great music city, it’s, you know, home of Elvis and everything else.”
Trump previously surged federal officers into major cities in 2020 as part of the multi-agency Operation Legend.