{"id":94857,"date":"2025-09-17T09:48:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=94857"},"modified":"2025-09-17T09:48:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:48:49","slug":"trump-deploys-national-guard-to-memphis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2025\/09\/17\/trump-deploys-national-guard-to-memphis\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Deploys National Guard to Memphis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump Monday directed Tennessee\u2019s National Guard deployed to the Democratic-led city of Memphis, following similar actions in the District of Columbia that Trump has said were needed to tackle crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to make Memphis safe again,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the latest test of Trump\u2019s presidential powers in using the U.S. military domestically, despite a law that bars soldiers from partaking in local law enforcement. Trump said his efforts in the district \u2013 using the National Guard \u2013 would be replicated in cities across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Oval Office, flanked by Tennessee\u2019s GOP Gov. Bill Lee and the state\u2019s Republican U.S. senators, Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, the president signed a presidential memorandum <\/a>to establish a \u201cMemphis Safe Task Force\u201d to address violent crime using federal law enforcement and agencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sending in the big force,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple federal agencies<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the National Guard, the task force will include the U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. It\u2019s unclear how many Guard members or members of federal law enforcement will be sent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis task force will be a replica of our extraordinarily successful efforts here, and you\u2019ll see it\u2019s a lot of the same thing,\u201d Trump said of using the National Guard in the district. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the first time Trump has sent the National Guard into a red state<\/a>, after seizing control of the California National Guard from the state\u2019s governor \u2014 a Democrat \u2014 for deployment in Los Angeles, and then sending Guard members to the district, another Democratic stronghold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While homicide rates remain high in Memphis compared to the nation, murders overall from 2023 to 2024 have decreased by 14%, according to the most recent data from the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Memphis mayor\u2019s office could not immediately be reached for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump added that St. Louis, Missouri, could also see similar action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other cities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The dispatch of the National Guard to Tennessee comes after Trump has threatened to send troops to other cities including New Orleans<\/a>; Portland, Oregon<\/a>; and Chicago. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed back and the president had backed off his threat, though he mentioned the city again on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governors have control over their state National Guard except in rare circumstances where the president can seize control. Pritzker has repeatedly rejected the idea of sending the National Guard into Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t have the governor\u2019s help we\u2019re doing it without him,\u201d Trump said of Pritzker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Memphis, Lee welcomed the intervention and thanked Trump for directing federal resources to the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very hopeful and excited about the prospect of moving that city forward,\u201d Lee said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump Monday directed Tennessee\u2019s National Guard deployed to the Democratic-led city of Memphis, following similar actions in the District of Columbia that Trump has said were needed to tackle crime.  \u201cWe\u2019re going to make Memphis safe again,\u201d Trump said. It\u2019s the latest test of Trump\u2019s presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[810,2550,1470],"class_list":["post-94857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-donald-trump","tag-memphis","tag-national-guard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}