In a major move aimed at curbing crime in Tennessee, President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order establishing the Memphis Safe Task Force, which will send National Guard troops to the city alongside federal law enforcement agencies.Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the effort would replicate the administration’s ongoing military-led response to urban crime in Democratic-run cities. “We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington,” he said, pledging to end the “savagery” and to “make Memphis safe again.”The task force will include personnel from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US Marshals Service and the Department of Justice. The deployment, Trump said, is aimed at targeting career criminals and restoring public safety.While signing the executive order, President Trump said, “This team will deploy the full powers of federal law enforcement agencies… to restore public safety and get dangerous career criminals off our streets. In 2024, Memphis had the highest violent crime rate, the highest property crime rate, and the third highest murder rate of any city in the nation.” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee welcomed the move. “I’m tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back,” Lee said. Trump told the governor that the crackdown “will be your proudest moment” and predicted that violent crime would “plummet” within weeks.The signing was attended by Tennessee’s Republican senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty. Trump has previously deployed federal forces to Washington DC, despite violent crime in the city being at a 30-year low.In a post on X, Rapid Response shared Memphis’s crime statistics. According to the post, in 2024 the city recorded the highest violent and property crime rates in the US, with its murder rate ranking third nationally. Violent crime was reported to be 344% above the national average, while the city’s murder rate was four times higher than Mexico City, 27 times higher than Havana, and 37 times higher than London.Speculation had pointed to Chicago as the next city where President Trump might deploy the National Guard and other federal authorities, as reported by the Guardian. “We’re going to be doing Chicago probably next”, the US President said. “We don’t want to lose Chicago,” he added noting that he has a “great, beautiful building” on the city’s skyline.Trump also suggested that St Louis, New Orleans and Baltimore could be potential future targets for similar federal interventions. “We want to save these places,” he said.The president stressed that the administration will proceed with crime-fighting measures even if local leaders do not fully cooperate. “We hope we have the governor’s help,” he said. “But if we don’t, we’re doing it without him.”
