President Donald Trump said Friday that he will send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, as part of his impulse to combat crime.
The president said in “Fox & Friends “that I wanted to replicate the results of its deployment of the National Guard in Washington, DC
“Memphis is deeply worried,” he said during the interview. “We are going to fix that, as we did in Washington.”
Skyline of the Memphis center.
Tony Shi Photography/Stock Photo/Getty Images
Trump said that part of the repression of crime could include federal forces, the National Guard and even “the army”, if necessary in Memphis.
“And any other person we need,” Trump said about the forces he planned to send to Memphis.
President Donald Trump talks to journalists before addressing Marine One at the White House South Law, on September 11, 2025, in Washington.
EVAN VUCCI/AP
Trump has said that local leaders from all over the country should ask for federal help and indicated that they have such support from Tennessee officials.
“The mayor is happy. He is a Democratic mayor, the mayor is happy. And the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy,” he said.
The Tennessee Republican governor’s office, Bill Lee, said in an X that would talk to Trump to “resolve the details.”
“I am grateful for the unwavering support and commitment of the president to provide all the necessary resources to serve Memphians, and I hope to work with local officials and the police to continue delivering results,” he said in office on Friday afternoon.
The mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, confirmed at a press conference on Friday afternoon that the National Guard will be sent to the city, but the Democrat added that he did not ask the National Guard.
Young added that he needed more details about the deployment of the governor’s guard and the federal government.
“When will they come? How many people will come? How long will they be here? What are they going to use?” Young asked.
The mayor cited the fall of the city in the crime during the last year.
29,978 crimes incidents have been reported in Memphis in 2025 as of September 11, a drop of approximately 44% since the same period in 2024 when there were 53,805 incidents reported, according to City data.
Homicides in the city fell almost 30% during the year with 182 incidents reported in 2025 so far compared to 261 during the same period last year, according to the data.
Trump’s comments on Friday occur in the midst of its impulse to take energetic measures against crime throughout the country, including its increase in the application of federal law in Washington, DC
Members of the Patrol of the National Guard of Louisiana at the National Mall in Washington, DC, on September 11, 2025.
Daniel Becerril/Reuters
However, before Trump began his deployment, the city had seen a two -year decrease in crimes, according to Police data. Until Friday, there have been 17,806 incidents of crimes reported in the city so far this year, compared to 19,501 during the same period last year, a fall of almost 8%, as shown by the data.
The mayor of DC, Muriel Bowser, said Friday, in his first public press conference since the federal increase expired earlier this week, that the city will continue to associate with the Federal Police.
“We have a long work history with the application of the federal law, and we will continue associated so that it makes sense for the security of DC,” Bowser said. “This also gives me the opportunity just to emphasize that we have always been about safe communities, safe streets and defeat crime.”
Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit last week that sought to put an end to the deployment of the DC guard arguing that it was a “military occupation.”
Critics have pointed out that the president has focused his threats of federal deployments in cities led by Democratic mayors.
During the last weeks, Trump has threatened because he was going to send National Guard troops to Chicago, citing his crime rate, and met with vocal protests from the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“I want to help people, not hurt them,” says the guy who only threatened an American city with the war department, “Pritzker wrote in X on Monday
The president continued arguing that federal intervention was needed in Chicago.
“You’re about to lose Chicago,” Trump said Friday. “I can fix Chicago, much bigger than DC, but we can bring in the army. We can bring to the National Guard. We will do what we have to do.”
Oren Oppenheim and Matt Foster of ABC News contributed to this report.
