{"id":222042,"date":"2025-09-12T23:02:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222042\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T23:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:02:14","slug":"trump-plans-to-send-national-guard-to-memphis-escalating-troop-deployments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222042\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump plans to send National Guard to Memphis, escalating troop deployments"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> said Friday he\u2019ll send the National Guard to address crime concerns in Memphis, Tennessee, his latest test of the limits of presidential power<\/a> by using military force in American cities.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Fox News, Trump said \u201cthe mayor is happy\u201d and \u201cthe governor is happy\u201d about the pending deployment. Calling the city \u201cdeeply troubled,\u201d he said \u201cwe\u2019re going to fix that just like we did Washington,\u201d where he\u2019s sent the National Guard and surged<\/a> federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s Republican governor embraced the troop deployment as part of a broader law enforcement surge in Memphis, however Trump\u2019s assertion drew pushback from the Democratic leader of Memphis, which is majority Black. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did not ask for the National Guard and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the way to drive down crime,\u201d Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday, while acknowledging the city remained high on too many \u201cbad lists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several Memphis leaders said they welcome federal help but don\u2019t think it needs to involve the military. Young committed to trying to help the deployment strengthen the community without distracting from ongoing law enforcement efforts. He said federal officials should aim at the \u201croot source of violent crime\u201d and mentioned rehabilitation and mental health services, jobs and housing needs.<\/p>\n

Gov. Bill Lee said he planned to speak with the president on Friday to work out details of the mission. He said he\u2019s still ironing out the best role for the National Guard alongside the FBI, state Highway Patrol, city police and other law enforcement agencies. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful for the President\u2019s unwavering support and commitment to providing every resource necessary to serve Memphians,\u201d Lee said in a statement. \u201cMemphis remains on a path to greatness, and we are not going to let anything hold them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Trump says he\u2019ll send National Guard to Memphis, escalating his use of troops in US cities\n <\/p>\n

President Trump says he\u2019s looking at western Tennessee for his next anti-crime deployment. The AP\u2019s Jennifer King reports.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s consent to the National Guard stands in sharp contrast to Democratic leaders in states like California<\/a> and Illinois<\/a>, who argue similar deployments undermine local authority and inflame tensions. The president has also suggested he could send soldiers to New Orleans<\/a>, another majority-Black city led by Democrats in a Republican-leaning state.<\/p>\n

Crime is down, but troops are coming<\/p>\n

Since deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Trump has openly mused about sending troops<\/a> to some of the nation\u2019s most Democratic cities \u2014 including Chicago and Portland, Oregon<\/a> \u2014 even as data shows most violent crime in those places and around the country has declined in recent years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump said Friday he decided to send troops into Memphis after Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena \u2014 who regularly visited the city while on the board of FedEx \u2014 urged him earlier this week to address crime there. <\/p>\n

The president\u2019s announcement came just days after Memphis police reported decreases across every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in previous years. Overall crime hit a 25-year low, while murder hit a six-year low, police said.<\/p>\n

Memphis gun violence and high-profile killings<\/p>\n

Despite the overall decrease, Memphis has dealt with stubborn gun violence problems for years. In 2023, the city set a record with more than 390 homicides.<\/p>\n

Memphis has also seen several high-profile killings in recent years. Rapper and independent music label owner Young Dolph was fatally shot at a cookie shop in November 2021.<\/p>\n

In September 2022, schoolteacher Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped during an early morning run, and her body was later found near a vacant duplex. Days later, a man went on a daylong shooting rampage as he drove through the city, leading to a citywide shelter-in-place order<\/a>. Three people were killed and three others wounded.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans want the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to audit the Memphis Police Department\u2019s crime reporting.<\/p>\n

Officials in Tennessee appear divided<\/p>\n

Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor, who backs the Memphis troop deployment, said Friday the National Guard could provide \u201cadministrative and logistical support\u201d to law enforcement and allow local officers to focus on policework. The state\u2019s two Republican U.S. senators support the intervention.<\/p>\n

The governor said Friday the deployment would add momentum to an ongoing FBI operation in Memphis alongside state and local law enforcement which \u201chas already arrested hundreds of the most violent offenders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Mulroy, the district attorney for Shelby County, which includes the city of Memphis, said he hoped the governor would tell Trump that a better strategy would be sending more FBI and other federal law enforcement agents, \u201cpeople with actual training in civilian law enforcement, unlike military troops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese high-profile, short-term military deployments risk seeming performative and leaving no lasting impact,\u201d Mulroy, a Democrat, said Friday.<\/p>\n

The legal details<\/p>\n

Asked Friday if city and state officials had requested a National Guard deployment \u2014 or had formally signed off on it \u2014 the White House didn\u2019t answer. It also didn\u2019t offer a possible timeline or say whether federal law enforcement would be surged in connection with a guard deployment, as happened when troops were deployed to Washington.<\/p>\n

Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU\u2019s National Security Project, said in a news conference Friday that she could not speak directly to the legality of sending National Guard troops to Memphis because she doesn\u2019t know whether the troops would be deployed under state or federal authority and what the legal justification would be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere quite simply is no factual emergency to legitimate calling out troops to perform any kind of policing function,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Using soldiers for civil law enforcement, she said, \u201cleaves our Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights \u2014 searches, seizures, due process safeguards \u2014 in the hands of people who are not trained to uphold them, and it can chill the exercise of our First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois governor celebrates as Trump turns focus south<\/p>\n

Trump said Friday he \u201cwould have preferred going to Chicago,\u201d where local politicians have fiercely resisted his plans, but suggested the city was too \u201chostile\u201d with \u201cprofessional agitators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker<\/a>, a potential 2028 presidential contender, wasted no time congratulating himself on social media, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s disturbing that the president is hellbent on sending troops onto America\u2019s streets. Using those who serve in uniform as political props is insulting. None of this is normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi this week accused the state\u2019s leaders of being uncooperative. However, even without National Guard troops, residents in Chicago<\/a> are expecting more federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s broader National Guard strategy<\/p>\n

Trump first deployed troops to Los Angeles<\/a> in early June over Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s objections by putting the California National Guard under federal jurisdiction, known as Title 10, to protect federal property from protests over immigration raids<\/a>. The guard later helped protect officers during immigration arrests.<\/p>\n

Alongside 4,000 guard members, 700 active duty Marines were also sent. California sued<\/a> over the intervention. <\/p>\n

In Washington, D.C., where the president directly commands the guard, Trump has used troops for everything from armed patrols<\/a> to trash cleanup without any legal issues.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to show that Lee\u2019s statement about the deployment adding momentum was made on Friday, not Thursday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz and Travis Loller in Nashville, Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, Will Weissert in Washington, and Katie Foody in Chicago contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Friday he\u2019ll send the National Guard to address crime concerns…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[120331,120662,69,7068,1854,57,2055,120663,1819,1818,72794,66559,2936,3577,8132,21461,50,11335,120330,80,95006,1229,6066,89,51507,61,49927,67,132,68,93,95001],"class_list":{"0":"post-222042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-bill-lee","10":"tag-brent-taylor","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-fedex-corp","13":"tag-gavin-newsom","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-government-and-politics","16":"tag-hina-shamsi","17":"tag-il-state-wire","18":"tag-illinois","19":"tag-j-b-pritzker","20":"tag-jim-vena","21":"tag-law-enforcement","22":"tag-memphis","23":"tag-military-and-defense","24":"tag-new-orleans","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-pam-bondi","27":"tag-paul-young","28":"tag-politics","29":"tag-steve-mulroy","30":"tag-tennessee","31":"tag-tn-state-wire","32":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","33":"tag-u-s-federal-bureau-of-investigation","34":"tag-u-s-news","35":"tag-union-pacific-corp","36":"tag-united-states","37":"tag-unitedstates","38":"tag-us","39":"tag-washington-news","40":"tag-young-dolph"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}