President Trump declared on Friday that Memphis will be the next city to receive a federal law enforcement surge, making it the second city after Washington, DC, to be targeted under the initiative.
Memphis, Tennessee’s second-largest city with about 611,000 residents, reported 297 homicides last year and currently holds the highest violent crime rate among large American cities.
Data from the FBI shows that in 2024, Memphis recorded 2,501 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
“We’re going to Memphis. [It is] deeply troubled and the mayor is happy. The Democrat mayor [Paul Young] is happy. And the [Republican] Governor [Bill Lee] is happy,” Trump said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
“Deeply troubled — we’re going to fix that, just like we did Washington. I would have preferred going to Chicago.”
Trump explained that the idea was suggested by a friend, a railroad executive who also sits on the board of Memphis-based shipping giant FedEx.
“He said, ‘When I walk one block to my hotel, they won’t allow me to do it. They put me in an armored vehicle with bulletproof glass to take me one block.’ He said, ‘It’s so terrible.’”
Just last month, Trump ordered a surge of federal officers and National Guard units into Washington following a series of violent crime incidents that drew national attention.
He has repeatedly floated the possibility of launching a similar effort in Chicago, but Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, have resisted the move.
Earlier this week, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, focusing on illegal immigrants with criminal records. So far, however, that operation has been limited to immigration enforcement.
“So we’re going to Memphis. I’m just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out,” Trump said Friday.
“We’ll bring in the military, too, if we need it. But National Guard,” he added. “Memphis is, look, it’s a great music city, it’s, you know, home of Elvis and everything else.”
Trump has previously used federal deployments in major cities, most notably in 2020 under the multi-agency initiative known as Operation Legend.
{Matzav.com}
