President Donald Trump on Monday announced a federal task force to tackle violent crime in Memphis, Tennessee, saying the operation will mirror the crackdown implemented in Washington, D.C., and will include deployments of the National Guard and several federal law enforcement agencies.
Trump, joined at the White House by Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, signed a memorandum establishing the task force and said he will activate the National Guard as well as the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Department of Justice to support the effort. "We're not going to allow this kind of savagery to destroy our society anymore," he said, adding that "we have virtually no crime in DC right now, and we're going to keep it that way."
The plan marks the second time the administration has launched a federal-style operation in a U.S. city this year; the White House began a similar deployment in Washington, D.C., in August after Trump took operational control of the city’s police department and ordered a surge of federal officers and Guard units. Administration officials cite more than 2,000 arrests and hundreds of illegal firearms seized in D.C. since that deployment as evidence of its efficacy.
Memphis, a city led by Democrats, has drawn particular attention from the administration because of high violent crime rates. FBI statistics for 2024 show Memphis recorded 2,501 violent crimes per 100,000 people, among the highest rates reported in U.S. cities. Trump said he also remains focused on other cities he has singled out previously, including Chicago and St. Louis.
Paul Young, the mayor of Memphis, voiced opposition to the federal plan and said crime in the city already is falling without federal intervention. In an interview with CNN over the weekend, Young said he was "not happy" about plans to deploy the National Guard and that he learned of the deployment when Trump confirmed it on Fox News.
"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," Young said. "It is something that we don't have a choice in. We're going to do all that we can to make sure it has limited impact on our communities."
Governor Lee, who accompanied Trump at the memorandum signing, praised the president’s approach and said the state and federal governments will work together to bring "the full extent of both federal and state resources" to bear in Memphis. Other Republican state and local officials have publicly supported the president’s focus on crime in several U.S. cities.
The decision to send federal troops and agencies into municipalities has prompted legal and political debate. Polling and local sentiment in Washington indicated mixed reactions to the D.C. deployment, and legal experts have raised questions about the legality of using the National Guard and federal agents in domestic law enforcement roles. A federal judge in California ruled earlier in September that the administration’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles this summer was unlawful; that ruling does not automatically apply to deployments in other jurisdictions.
The announcement follows weeks of speculation about where the administration might next concentrate federal resources to fight crime. Trump had previously mentioned Chicago, New Orleans and Baltimore as potential targets. Plans for Chicago were reportedly shelved amid opposition from local and state officials.
The memorandum signed Monday does not publicly specify the full operational details, timelines or the number of personnel to be deployed to Memphis. Officials in the White House and Tennessee said they would coordinate with local authorities on implementation. Local leaders, including the mayor, have said they intend to press for restrictions on how federal forces operate within the community.
The unfolding operation marks a continuation of the administration’s national strategy to address violent crime by centralizing federal resources in specific cities, even as debates persist about federal authority, local consent and the long-term effectiveness of such deployments.