By Jarrett Renshaw
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee to combat crime, following his administration’s unprecedented police takeover in Washington last month.
“We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled,” Trump said in an interview with the Fox News “Fox and Friends” program. “We’re going to fix that, just like we did Washington.”
Trump, who has sought to make crime a central issue despite declines in violent crimes in many cities, announced the decision to deploy federal troops to the Tennessee city after meeting resistance with his earlier plans to send immigration agents and National Guard troops to Chicago.
He said deployments could follow to other cities, including New Orleans, Louisiana.
Trump’s crackdown on Democratic-led cities has spurred protests, including a demonstration by several thousand people in Washington last weekend.
Trump argues that crime is blighting American cities like Washington. He placed the U.S. capital city’s Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel, including members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to police the city’s streets.
Justice Department data showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington, a self-governing federal district under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; writing by Andrea Shalal; editing by Rami Ayyub)
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