U.S. President Donald Trump makes a fist before boarding Marine One upon departure for New York, as the Washington Monument stands in the background, in Washington, D.C., U.S., Sept. 11, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump said Friday that he will send the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee one month after he federalized law enforcement in Washington, D.C. and deployed soldiers across the city in an effort to address crime.
“We’re going to Memphis,” Trump said on Fox News, calling the city “deeply troubled.”
Trump said both the state’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee and the Democratic mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, were “happy” with his plan.
“We’re going to fix” the city’s troubles, Trump said of Memphis, “just like we did Washington.”
Trump said he was inspired to prioritize Memphis by Jim Vena, the CEO of Union Pacific railroad. Vena is a former board member at FedEx, which is headquartered in Memphis. Vena stepped down from the board in 2023, when he was named to lead Union Pacific.
Trump claimed Vena said he needed to use “an armored vehicle with bulletproof glass” to go one block in Memphis.
Trump said Vena also suggested St. Louis, Mo. and Chicago as potential cities that Trump should look at.
The president has previously said troops would be deployed to Chicago, despite fierce opposition to the idea from the city’s mayor and the Illinois governor.
Trump did not explain what legal framework the White House would use to justify a deployment of soldiers to another U.S. city.
Washington, D.C., sued the Trump administration over its deployment on troops in the U.S. capital earlier this month, arguing that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority.
That suit came days after a federal judge blocked the administration from deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles.
During his interview Friday, Trump criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom and said he expects to win all the court cases related to the National Guard’s deployment.
“We think we’re going to win all of them,’ Trump said. “And we have been winning all of them.”
