Trump says he’ll send National Guard to Memphis, escalating his use of troops in U.S. cities

A spotted lanternfly flies past President Donald Trump as he boards Air Force One, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., to travel to New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he’ll send the National Guard to address crime concerns in Memphis, Tennessee, his latest test of the limits of presidential power by using military force in American cities.

Speaking on Fox News, Trump said “the mayor is happy” and “the governor is happy” about the pending deployment. Calling the city “deeply troubled,” he said “we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington,” where he’s sent the National Guard and surged federal law enforcement.

Tennessee’s Republican governor embraced the troop deployment as part of a broader law enforcement surge in Memphis, however Trump’s assertion drew pushback from the Democratic leader of Memphis, which is majority Black.

“I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday, while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.”

Several Memphis leaders said they welcome federal help but don’t think it needs to involve the military. Young committed to trying to help the deployment strengthen the community without distracting from ongoing law enforcement efforts. He said federal officials should aim at the “root source of violent crime” and mentioned rehabilitation and mental health services, jobs and housing needs.

Gov. Bill Lee said he planned to speak with the president on Friday to work out details of the mission. He said he’s still ironing out the best role for the National Guard alongside the FBI, state Highway Patrol, city police and other law enforcement agencies.

“I’m grateful for the President’s unwavering support and commitment to providing every resource necessary to serve Memphians,” Lee said in a statement. “Memphis remains on a path to greatness, and we are not going to let anything hold them back.”

The governor’s consent to the National Guard stands in sharp contrast to Democratic leaders in states like California and Illinois, who argue similar deployments undermine local authority and inflame tensions. The president has also suggested he could send soldiers to New Orleans, another majority-Black city led by Democrats in a Republican-leaning state.

Crime is down, but troops are coming

Since deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Trump has openly mused about sending troops to some of the nation’s most Democratic cities -- including Chicago and Portland, Oregon -- even as data shows most violent crime in those places and around the country has declined in recent years.

Trump said Friday he decided to send troops into Memphis after Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena -- who regularly visited the city while on the board of FedEx -- urged him earlier this week to address crime there.

The president’s announcement came just days after Memphis police reported decreases across every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in previous years. Overall crime hit a 25-year low, while murder hit a six-year low, police said.

Memphis gun violence and high-profile killings

Despite the overall decrease, Memphis has dealt with stubborn gun violence problems for years. In 2023, the city set a record with more than 390 homicides.

Memphis has also seen several high-profile killings in recent years. Rapper and independent music label owner Young Dolph was fatally shot at a cookie shop in November 2021.

In September 2022, schoolteacher Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped during an early morning run, and her body was later found near a vacant duplex. Days later, a man went on a daylong shooting rampage as he drove through the city, leading to a citywide shelter-in-place order. Three people were killed and three others wounded.

Some Republicans want the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to audit the Memphis Police Department’s crime reporting.

Officials in Tennessee appear divided

Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor, who backs the Memphis troop deployment, said Friday the National Guard could provide “administrative and logistical support” to law enforcement and allow local officers to focus on policework. The state’s two Republican U.S. senators support the intervention.

The governor said Friday the deployment would add momentum to an ongoing FBI operation in Memphis alongside state and local law enforcement which “has already arrested hundreds of the most violent offenders.”

Steve Mulroy, the district attorney for Shelby County, which includes the city of Memphis, said he hoped the governor would tell Trump that a better strategy would be sending more FBI and other federal law enforcement agents, “people with actual training in civilian law enforcement, unlike military troops.”

“These high-profile, short-term military deployments risk seeming performative and leaving no lasting impact,” Mulroy, a Democrat, said Friday.

The legal details

Asked Friday if city and state officials had requested a National Guard deployment -- or had formally signed off on it -- the White House didn’t answer. It also didn’t offer a possible timeline or say whether federal law enforcement would be surged in connection with a guard deployment, as happened when troops were deployed to Washington.

Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a news conference Friday that she could not speak directly to the legality of sending National Guard troops to Memphis because she doesn’t know whether the troops would be deployed under state or federal authority and what the legal justification would be.

“There quite simply is no factual emergency to legitimate calling out troops to perform any kind of policing function,” she said.

Using soldiers for civil law enforcement, she said, “leaves our Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights -- searches, seizures, due process safeguards -- in the hands of people who are not trained to uphold them, and it can chill the exercise of our First Amendment rights.”

Illinois governor celebrates as Trump turns focus south

Trump said Friday he “would have preferred going to Chicago,” where local politicians have fiercely resisted his plans, but suggested the city was too “hostile” with “professional agitators.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, wasted no time congratulating himself on social media, adding, “It’s disturbing that the president is hellbent on sending troops onto America’s streets. Using those who serve in uniform as political props is insulting. None of this is normal.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi this week accused the state’s leaders of being uncooperative. However, even without National Guard troops, residents in Chicago are expecting more federal immigration enforcement.

Trump’s broader National Guard strategy

Trump first deployed troops to Los Angeles in early June over Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections by putting the California National Guard under federal jurisdiction, known as Title 10, to protect federal property from protests over immigration raids. The guard later helped protect officers during immigration arrests.

Alongside 4,000 guard members, 700 active duty Marines were also sent. California sued over the intervention.

In Washington, D.C., where the president directly commands the guard, Trump has used troops for everything from armed patrols to trash cleanup without any legal issues.

By Jonathan Mattise.

Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz and Travis Loller in Nashville, Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, Will Weissert in Washington, and Katie Foody in Chicago contributed to this report.