President Donald Trump announced Friday that his administration would target Memphis as part of his efforts to crack down on crime across the nation’s major cities.
“I’ll be the first to say it right now, again, we’re going to Memphis,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” in an interview.
“Memphis is — that’s the next thing, deeply troubled, and the mayor is happy, he’s a Democrat mayor, the mayor is happy. And the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy. … We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.”
CNN has reached out to Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
“I’m just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out, National Guard and anybody else we need,” Trump said. “And by the way, we’ll bring in the military too if we need it, but National Guard, but Memphis is, look, it’s a great, music city.”
After the Trump administration federalized the Washington, DC, police department and surged federal law enforcement and troops across the nation’s capital last month, crime in the city is down and hundreds of people accused of being in the US illegally have been detained. But tourism numbers have also declined, and some restaurants in the city are hurting for customers, CNN has previously reported.
Trump previewed earlier this week that he’d announce the next city his administration was targeting by the end of the week, telling reporters ahead of a dinner in DC on Tuesday, “We’re working it out.”
“We’ll be announcing another city that we’re going to very shortly — we’re working it out,” Trump said. “The governor of a certain state would love us to be there, and the mayor of a certain city in that same state would love us to be there. We’ll announce it probably tomorrow, and it’s going to be something where we’ll do like we did here.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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