Trump announces federal crackdown on crime in Memphis, Tennessee

US President Donald Trump, joined by Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee, on Monday established a task force to take on crime in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Democratic-led city is the second to face a Trump administration crackdown on crime, following Washington DC.

Trump has vowed to “fix” the city after shelving plans for a similar operation in Chicago, reportedly due to opposition from local and state officials.

Memphis’ mayor, Paul Young, also has voiced opposition to the plan, arguing that crime already is falling without federal intervention.

The president said on Monday, however, that Memphis is “overrun” with carjackings, robberies and shootings, as well as other crimes.

“We’re not going to allow this kind of savagery to destroy our society anymore,” Trump said at a memorandum-signing in the Oval Office.

“We’re going to take care of all of them step by step, just like we did in DC. We have virtually no crime in DC right now, and we’re going to keep it that way,” he said, noting that he still has his sights set on Chicago and St Louis, Missouri.

The Memphis task force will be a “replica of efforts” in Washington DC, Trump said, adding that he will activate federal agencies including the National Guard, FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Justice.

Lee praised his efforts for “sustained crime lowering” in the state.

In an interview with CNN on Saturday, Young said he was “not happy” about federal plans to deploy the National Guard to Memphis – he said the plan was first confirmed to him by Trump on Fox News the day before.

“My goal is to make sure that if they are indeed coming, that we have an opportunity to drive some of the decisions around how they engage in our community,” he said.

“It is something that we don’t have a choice in,” he added. “We’re going to do all that we can to make sure it has limited impact on our communities.”

Republican lawmakers in the state – including Governor Lee – have expressed support.

The governor said last week that he already was working on a plan with the White House that would bring “the full extent of both federal and state resources” to bear in Memphis.

FBI statistics from 2024 show that Memphis has 2,501 violent crimes per 100,000 people, one of the highest rates of any US city.

The proclamation comes after weeks of speculation on where he might next deploy federal resources to fight crime.

In addition to Chicago, the president had mentioned New Orleans – welcomed by Louisiana governor Jeff Landry – and Baltimore.

On 11 August, Trump took charge of Washington DC’s police department, and also activated National Guard units and began a surge of federal law enforcement officers.

More than 2,000 arrests have been made and hundreds of illegal firearms seized since then, which administration officials repeatedly have pointed to as signs their strategy in the city is working.

Polls show, however, that the deployment of National Guard troops in the city is unpopular among many local residents, and legal experts have questioned the legality of using troops in US cities.

Earlier in September, a federal judge in California ruled that Trump’s deployment of troops to quell unrest in Los Angeles this summer was illegal, although the ruling does not apply to other cities.