Trump Deploys National Guard And FBI To Memphis In Sweeping Crime Crackdown

President Donald Trump on Monday signed a presidential memorandum creating a new task force to combat violent crime in Memphis, Tennessee, mirroring an earlier initiative aimed at restoring order in Washington, D.C.

“I’m signing a presidential memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “And it’s very important because of the crime that’s going on, not only in Memphis, in many cities, that we’re going to take care of all of them a step by step, just like we did in D.C.”

The president explained that the Memphis operation would bring together the National Guard, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In an interview Friday with “Fox & Friends,” Trump described Memphis as “troubled,” adding, “we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.”

Trump first mobilized 800 National Guard troops in Washington on Aug. 11 to address crime in the capital. He later pulled in support from Guard units in Ohio, West Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

“It’s very important because of the crime that’s going on, not only in Memphis, in many cities,” Trump said Monday. “The task force will be a replica of our extraordinarily successful efforts here, and you’ll see it’s a lot of the same thing.”

National Guard forces typically serve as reserve units that can be called to support both state and federal missions, from natural disasters to security operations. State governments usually oversee their own Guard forces, while the federal government controls the District of Columbia’s units.

According to Trump, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee requested federal help to tackle Memphis crime. Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, told CNN on Saturday that he was not “happy” about the coming deployment.