Donald Trump said on Friday that he will send national guard troops to Memphis as part of his administration’s expanding military-led response to urban crime in Democratic-run cities.
“I think maybe I’ll be the first to say it right now: we’re going to Memphis,” the US president said during an appearance on Fox & Friends, describing the violence in Memphis as dire.
“Memphis is deeply troubled, and the mayor is happy. He’s a Democrat mayor. The mayor is happy, and the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy.”
Paul Young, the Memphis mayor, had signaled the intervention was coming. “Earlier this week I was informed that the government and the president were considering deploying the national guard,” he said on Thursday, while requesting “financial resources for intervention and prevention” rather than military deployment.
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But Trump promised a comprehensive militarized response should it be needed.
“We’ll straighten that out, national guard and anybody else they need,” Trump said on Fox. “And by the way, we’ll bring in the military too if we need it.”
The Trump administration made the announcement official on Friday afternoon when it posted the Fox News segment online, writing in a memo that the descent on Memphis was part of their “aggressive push” to take on violent crime in cities run by Democrats.
The White House added that it was being welcomed by some of Tennessee’s elected officials, sharing statements from Marsha Blackburn, the Republican senator, who said: “President Trump answered my call to Make Memphis Safe Again” and from Bill Lee, the Republican governor, who said he was in communication with the White House for months.
“Our goal is to accelerate the positive momentum of Operation Viper – an ongoing FBI mission in Memphis with a dedicated task force of federal, state, and local law enforcement that has already arrested hundreds of the most violent offenders,” Lee said in a social media post.
“I’ve been in close contact with the administration throughout the week, and will be speaking with President Trump this afternoon to work out details of the mission,” he added.
Trump has previously deployed the national guard to Los Angeles and Washington DC and has threatened to do the same in other Democratic-run cities including Chicago and Baltimore.
Trump said during the Friday interview that the decision came after consultation with the head of the railroad company Union Pacific, who Trump said sits on the FedEx board, headquartered in Memphis.
The Union Pacific head also urged Trump to target St Louis next, he claimed, saying the Missouri city “has been so badly hit”.
None of Union Pacific’s top leaders currently sit on the board of FedEx. The Union Pacific CEO, Jim Vena, was on the board until he resigned in 2023 to take on leading the railroad company.
Union Pacific did not respond to a request for comment.
