President Donald Trump said this morning he is sending National Guard troops into Memphis.
“Memphis is deeply troubled,” he said on Fox News. “We’re gonna fix that just like we did Washington,” where the National Guard and a surge of federal law enforcement have been deployed since Aug. 11.
Trump said Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, and Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee were “happy” about the deployment.
Lee’s office told ABC24 that his office had been working for months with the Trump administration to develop a strategic plan for Memphis. He said he had activated 50 additional Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers to the city and an ongoing task force of federal, state and local law enforcement was already making arrests. He did not directly confirm the National Guard deployment.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young issued a statement saying the city “is already making measurable progress in bringing down crime, and we support initiatives that help accelerate the pace of the work our officers, community partners, and other residents are doing everyday.”
The Memphis Police Department on Tuesday reported “historic crime reductions” across all major categories in the first eight months of 2025, stating crime in the city is “at a 25-year low.”
“Mr. President, no one here is ‘happy,’” Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said on X. “We’re not happy you’re militarizing Tennessee communities. Not happy to see the obliteration of America’s most important norms. Not happy at all with occupation, armored vehicles, semi-automatic weapons, and military personnel in fatigues.”
Memphis City Council Member Jerri Green said on X that “many of the guard’s troops who will be called up are first responders and law enforcement officers — the very people we need to protect our citizens.”
U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, a Republican whose district includes parts of Memphis, said in an emailed statement that he supports the deployment. “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,” he said.
Trump said on Fox he “would have preferred going to Chicago,” where local officials and protesters have been pushing back against his threats to deploy federal troops, and is still considering sending troops to New Orleans, which he said is “in really bad shape.”
On Sept. 2, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump’s deployment of federalized California National Guard troops and U.S. Marines in Los Angeles violated federal law and commanded the Trump administration to halt deployments to other cities in California. This week Breyer said he does not believe he has the authority to consider California’s request to halt Trump’s use of the troops in Los Angeles because the case is on appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from U.S. Rep. David Kustoff.
