Trump announces he will send national guard to Memphis, with Chicago ‘probably next’
Donald Trump announced he will deploy the national guard to Memphis during an Oval Office ceremony attended by the Tennessee governor Bill Lee.
Last week, Trump said “Memphis is deeply troubled” and teased that he wanted to “fix that just like we did Washington”, referring to his decision to deploy national guard troops to Washington DC last month in an effort to “crack down” on crime in the nation’s capitol. Violent crime was already at a 30-year low in the city.
Lee has welcomed Trump’s offers of federal troops and thanked the president during today’s announcement.
Trump added that he is considering sending national guard troops to “Chicago probably next” and floated cities such as St Louis may be next. “We want to save these places,” he said.
“Chicago is a great city,” Trump added. “We’re going to make it great again very soon.”
Illinois’ Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, has vehemently opposed the idea of federal troops deploying to Chicago.
Memphis, Chicago and St Louis are among the cities with the largest percentage of Black residents in the United States.
Trump said law enforcement agents from agencies including the FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE and Homeland Security will join the national guard in Memphis.
My colleauge George Chidi conducted this helpful analysis of crime rates in cities Trump has named over the past month. Although Trump has called Chicago “the most dangerous city in the world”, crime in large cities in the aggregate is lower in states with Democratic leadership. While the four cities of populations larger than 100,000 with the highest murder rates in 2024 are in Republican states.
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