U.S. President Donald Trump makes a fist before boarding Marine One upon departure for New York, as the Washington Monument stands in the background, in Washington, D.C., U.S., Sept. 11, 2025.<\/p>\n
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump<\/a> said Friday that he will send the National Guard<\/a> to Memphis, Tennessee one month after he federalized law enforcement in Washington, D.C. and deployed soldiers across the city in an effort to address crime.<\/p>\n “We’re going to Memphis,” Trump said on Fox News, calling the city “deeply troubled.”<\/p>\n Trump said both the state’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee and the Democratic mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, were “happy” with his plan.<\/p>\n “We’re going to fix” the city’s troubles, Trump said of Memphis, “just like we did Washington.”<\/p>\n Trump said he was inspired to prioritize Memphis by Jim Vena, the CEO of Union Pacific<\/a> railroad. Vena is a former board member at FedEx<\/a>, which is headquartered in Memphis. Vena stepped down<\/a> from the board in 2023, when he was named to lead Union Pacific. <\/p>\n Trump claimed Vena said he needed to use “an armored vehicle with bulletproof glass” to go one block in Memphis. <\/p>\n Trump said Vena also suggested St. Louis, Mo. and Chicago as potential cities that Trump should look at.<\/p>\n The president has previously said troops would be deployed to Chicago, despite fierce opposition to the idea from the city’s mayor and the Illinois governor.<\/p>\n Trump did not explain what legal framework the White House would use to justify a deployment of soldiers to another U.S. city.<\/p>\n