President Donald Trump says Memphis is a "deeply troubled" city after announcing plans to deploy the National Guard there. Photo / Salwan Georges, The Washington Post
US President Donald Trump says Memphis will be the next target of a National Guard deployment, as his administration expands its use of the military to fight crime to its third Democratic-run city in recent months.
“We’re going to Memphis,” Trump said during a Fox News interview on Saturday, calling it a “deeply troubled” city. “National Guard and anybody else we need. And by the way, we’ll bring in the military too, if we need it.”
The move follows similar National Guard deployments to Los Angeles and Washington DC as part of what Trump has said is a necessary federal intervention in those cities to crack down on violent crime and ramp up deportations of undocumented immigrants. The deployment to Memphis will be the first time Trump has mobilised the National Guard to a state he won in November.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, said he supports the move and the National Guard will work closely with other law enforcement agencies in the state.
“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. “As one of America’s world-class cities, Memphis remains on a path to greatness, and we are not going to let anything hold [residents] back.”
The timing of the National Guard’s deployment was unclear. Lee said he planned to speak to Trump later Saturday to work out details. The White House did not provide additional information.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, disputed Trump’s claim that he was “happy” about the deployment of the National Guard, saying he did not support sending troops into his city.
“I want to be clear, I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Young said during a news conference. “However, they are coming. It’s not the mayor’s call. The mayor doesn’t have a say or the authority to stop them from coming, and so my goal is to make sure that as they come, that I have an opportunity to work with them to strategise on how they engage in this community.”
Officials in Shelby County, which includes Memphis, expressed concern Saturday not only about the symbolism of sending soldiers into a majority-black city in the south but also about the impact it could have on already stretched county and city budgets.
A fresh influx of Tennessee Highway Patrol officers arrived in the city in recent days, prompting a surge of tickets and arrests, adding further stress to the severely overcrowded Shelby County Jail, according to the Shelby County General Sessions Court clerk Tami Sawyer.
She told reporters that hundreds of people have been stuck in the jail’s intake room because there was no room for them – a condition she feared would only grow worse amid any surge in federal law enforcement.
“We, as a county, don’t have the funding to deal with this. Our jail does not have the space. We don’t have the number of employees that we will need to support a federal occupation,” Sawyer said.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said he is exploring legal options to determine whether he can sue to stop the deployment. He also made an emotional appeal to Trump and the governor to call off their plans.
“I’m scared,” Harris said. “Don’t send folks in military fatigues. Don’t send folks with semiautomatic weapons to patrol our streets. I want less crime, but I need America.”
In South Memphis, an area that has struggled with deep poverty and crime, many residents were already expressing “a lot of fear and anxiety and confusion and worry” at what a National Guard deployment could look or feel like, said Democratic state Representative Justin Pearson.
“You can’t not think what the weaponisation of the military against black communities and black people has looked like before,” Pearson said.
Memphis is the second-most-populous city in Tennessee, behind Nashville. It has historically experienced a high crime rate, though like other major cities it has seen a drop in crime in recent years.
“Overall crime is at a 25-year low, with robbery, burglary, and larceny also reaching 25-year lows,” the Memphis Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.
Tennessee Republicans praised Trump’s announcement. US Senator Marsha Blackburn applauded the President for helping “Make Memphis Safe Again”, noting in a statement that she voiced support last month for putting troops in Memphis.
US Representative David Kustoff, a Republican representing Tennessee, whose district includes part of Memphis, said he supported the decision as well.
“It is important for the long-term success in Memphis to have additional and permanent federal law enforcement officers and agents who can work in conjunction with state and local officials,” Kustoff said in a statement.
Trump spent recent weeks considering where to deploy the National Guard next after sending troops to DC last month. He most commonly floated Chicago, making an inflammatory social media post last weekend suggesting his administration was soon going to “war” with the city.
However, state and local Democratic officials there voiced strong opposition to the proposal. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, accused Trump of having a “nefarious plan” to normalise the militarisation of cities to his benefit. Pritzker and Chicago City Council members said they would have welcomed support from federal agencies to track down drug traffickers and violent criminals – but not in the shape of a National Guard deployment.
Trump said Saturday he “would have preferred going to Chicago” next but suggested he was put off by such a “hostile” setting.
Trump promised the National Guard would “straighten out” Memphis like in Washington, which he hailed as a “crime-free” city now. He made false and exaggerated claims about the recent reduction of crime in the city, including that it had been years since DC went a week without a reported homicide.
During his interview on Fox & Friends, Trump continued to toy with the idea of bringing the National Guard to more cities, including other Democratic-led ones in red states. He reiterated his interest in New Orleans, saying that it is “in really bad shape” and that the Republican governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, “wants us to go in”. Landry said this month that the state would welcome federal law enforcement help “from New Orleans to Shreveport!”.
Trump has hinted that the federal takeover of policing in DC could serve as a test case for other cities across the country. However, Washington is unique in that it has no governor and the President has direct control over troops there.
A federal judge ruled September 2 that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles violated a law that prohibits the military from carrying out domestic law enforcement. It was a narrow opinion that did not apply to other states. The case is now on appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
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