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By Martha McHardy and Shane Croucher
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President Donald Trump has said he will deploy the National Guard to Memphis, calling it "deeply troubled" by escalating violence and unrest.
Trump said that Memphis Mayor Paul Young and the Tennessee Governor Bill Lee were happy with the decision.
"We're going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled, the mayor is happy, a democratic mayor," he told Fox News on Friday. "We're going to fix it like we did Washington."
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Newsweek contacted Young and Lee for comment by email.
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Why It Matters
During his current presidency, Trump has highlighted the importance of security and has used federal authorities to crack down on crime in various cities across the U.S.
Advocates say Guard support frees federal agents to focus on core enforcement tasks. But critics and some legal experts warn about using military forces in domestic policing roles and the risk of politicizing state military forces. Governors have been split along partisan lines over similar deployments.
What To Know
Trump said previously in August that he was considering deploying the National Guard to Memphis.
"We're doing sort of a test right now in D.C., it's working unbelievably, much faster than we thought," Trump told the Memphis-based KWAM radio station. "We've arrested hundreds of criminals, hard-line criminals, people that will never be any good." He added that he would "think about Memphis."
Trump already sent the National Guard to Los Angeles when confrontations between immigration agents and protesters intensified in June.
He has also sent the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and has threatened to send them to Chicago, Baltimore, and New Orleans to tackle crime in the cities.
Washington, D.C., sued the Trump administration over its deployment of troops in the U.S. capital earlier this month, arguing that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority. That suit came days after a federal judge blocked the administration from deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles.
In terms of crime rates, Memphis remains an outlier nationally. In 2024, the city recorded about 2,500 violent crimes per 100,000 residents—the highest rate in Tennessee and among the worst in the country, according to FBI data.
That level of violence was more than three times the national average and higher than other high-crime cities, including St. Louis, Detroit, and Baltimore.
Memphis' 2024 crime rate was still below what it was in 2023 and 2022, according to data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Crime is still higher than it was between 2010 and 2021, but 2024's rate marked an 11 percent decrease.
Trump did not explain what legal framework the White House would use to justify a deployment of soldiers to another U.S. city.
The president can't activate the National Guard outside Washington, D.C., without permission from the state's governor, absent of exceptional circumstances, such as an insurrection or natural disaster.
Governor Lee, a Republican, told reporters in August that the state had made "significant investments" to reduce crime in Memphis and had no plans to have the National Guard sent there.
But earlier this week in a statement he said he had been working for months with the administration to develop a strategic plan to combat crime in the city, adding that "nothing is off the table."
What People Are Saying
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, in a statement to Newsweek: "We are grateful for everything President Trump has already done to Make Memphis Safe Again with the help of FBI Director Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
"Today, President Trump answered my call to do whatever it takes to Make Memphis Safe Again, and I applaud his decision to send the National Guard to Memphis following his tremendous success in reducing violent crime in Washington, D.C. Time and time again, President Trump has stepped in to restore law and order in blue cities that refuse to protect their own citizens, and I will continue working alongside the Trump administration to hold left-wing officials accountable for the consequences of soft-on-crime agendas."
Mark Shanahan, who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K., previously told Newsweek: "Wherever Trump announces he's deploying the National Guard is very unlikely to be greeted with joy—especially if it's a Blue city in a Blue State. So much of this action is performative from a president intent on militarizing policing and creating crises where they don't really exist. America's agenda would be better served if Trump focused his military strategists on Putin and Netanyahu's growing recklessness rather than on creating media images for his base."
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said in a statement earlier this week: "For months, I have been in constant communication with the Trump Administration to develop a strategic plan to combat crime in Memphis, leveraging the full extent of both federal and state resources. While the FBI and THP (Tennessee Highway Patrol) operations continue, we are actively discussing the next phase of our strategy to accelerate the positive momentum that's already underway, and nothing is off the table."
What Happens Next
Trump has not said when the National Guard will be deployed to Memphis.
During his interview on Friday, Trump said he expects to win all the court cases related to the National Guard's deployment.
"We think we're going to win all of them,′ Trump said. "And we have been winning all of them."
Update 9/12/25, 11:57 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with a statement from Senator Marsha Blackburn.
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