Trump says Memphis ‘deeply troubled,’ as he plans to replicate Washington, DC’s federal control measures to address crime.
Published On 12 Sep 2025
United States President Donald Trump says he will send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, to combat crime, following his administration’s unprecedented police takeover in the capital, Washington, last month.
Trump has sought to make crime a central issue even as violent crime rates have fallen in many cities. His crackdown on Democratic-led municipalities has spurred protests, including a demonstration by several thousand people in Washington last weekend.
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“We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled. The mayor is happy … We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington,” Trump told Fox News on Friday.
The office of Memphis Mayor Paul Young did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters news agency for comment.
Memphis, a city of 611,000 people along the Mississippi River, has one of the highest violent crime rates in the US, according to FBI statistics. Some 24 percent of residents live in poverty, more than double the national average, according to the US Census Bureau.
The US Justice Department sent federal agents to help fight violent crime in the city in 2020, during Trump’s first term in office.
‘Would have preferred Chicago’
Trump said he might also send federal personnel to New Orleans, like Memphis, a Democratic-leaning city in a Republican-controlled state. He has threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, but so far has not done so.
Trump argues that crime is blighting American cities like Washington, and in recent weeks placed the US capital city’s police department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel to patrol the city’s streets.
Justice Department data showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington.
Trump said he “would have preferred going to Chicago,” where local politicians have fiercely resisted his plans, but he suggested it was a “hostile” place with “professional agitators”.
Trump first deployed troops to Los Angeles in early June over Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s objections by putting the California National Guard under federal jurisdiction, known as Title 10, to protect federal property from protests over immigration raids.
Besides 4,000 guard members, Trump later sent 700 active duty Marines, and California sued over the intervention. The guard went on to help protect officers during immigration arrests.
