President Donald Trump announced during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” that he is planning to send military troops to Memphis, Tennessee.
During his appearance on September 12, Trump said his administration would deploy the National Guard “and anybody else we need” to the Tennessee city. Trump did not provide a timeline for the deployment.
“By the way, we’ll bring in the military too if we need it,” he added.
Trump said Memphis is “deeply troubled.”
“We’re going to fix that, just like we did in Washington,” he said.
The Memphis Shelby Crime Commission shows that crime in Memphis, including violent crime, has decreased since last year. Violent crime from January to June is down more than 17 percent this year compared with the same period in 2024.
Earlier this month, Trump flooded Washington, D.C. with federal agents and National Guard troops under the pretense of cracking down on crime, despite record-low crime rates. In June, he sent National Guard troops, as well as the Marines, to Los Angeles to suppress protests against his immigration policies.
A federal judge recently ruled that Trump’s deployment of troops to LA was illegal. Earlier this month, D.C.’s attorney general sued the Trump administration, alleging that its deployment of troops in the city was unconstitutional and violated federal law.
For weeks Trump has threatened to send troops to Chicago, but a conversation with a businessman, who he did not name, changed his mind, Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”
“I said, ‘So what do you think? Where should we go next as a city?’” Trump said in his retelling of the story. “‘Because we’re going to 1, 2, 3, and then we’ll do a few at a time. We’re going to straighten out the crime in the city.’”
The man replied, “Sir, Memphis would be good.”
Trump did not disclose the man’s name, but said he was on the Board of FedEx, which has its headquarters in Memphis, and was the head of the railroad company Union Pacific. The Guardian reported that Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena was on the board of FedEx until 2023, and that none of the railroad company’s leaders currently sit on the FedEx board.
Memphis is one of the largest majority-Black cities in the country. Like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., Memphis is run by a Democratic Black mayor.
The governors of Illinois and California, both Democrats, pushed back against Trump’s incursions, but Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee has welcomed the news.
“For months, I have been in constant communication with the Trump Administration to develop a multi-phased, strategic plan to combat crime in Memphis, leveraging the full extent of both federal and state resources,” Lee said in a statement released on September 12.
“The next phase will include a comprehensive mission with the Tennessee National Guard, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Memphis Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies, and we are working closely with the Trump Administration to determine the most effective role for each of these agencies to best serve Memphians,” he continued.
Lee said he has authorized an “additional Tennessee Highway Patrol surge in Shelby County, and THP continues to work closely with the Memphis Police Department through the Bluff City Task Force.”
Local leaders, however, were not as enthusiastic about Trump’s plans.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young (D) said in a statement that he had been informed earlier in the week that the president and governor were “considering deploying the National Guard and other resources to Memphis.”
“What we need most are financial resources for intervention and prevention, additional patrol officers, and case support to strengthen MPD’s investigations,” he continued, adding that Memphis is “making measurable progress in bringing down crime.”
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris (D), who is Black, said that Trump’s plan to send troops into Memphis is “anti-democratic.” The county mayor is the chief elected official in Shelby County; Memphis is the county seat.
“The President’s announcement that troops will occupy Tennessee communities is disappointing, anti-democratic, and violates American norms and possibly US laws,” he posted on Facebook on September 12. “In the short term, the President’s incursion will likely cause confusion and fear in many of our communities, particularly the most vulnerable ones.”
He continued: “Let’s be clear: the President sending troops to Tennessee will interfere and have a chilling effect on Tennesseans’ ability to exercise critical freedoms, such as the freedom to protest and the liberty to travel. We will do everything in our power to prevent this incursion into Tennessee and to protect the rights, safety, and dignity of every resident in our communities.”
