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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Trump says he’s targeting Memphis in crime crackdown
By Donald Judd, Betsy Klein, Chris Isidore, Marshall Cohen, Wesley
Bruer, Jason Morris, CNN
Updated:
11:19 AM EDT, Sat September 13, 2025
Source: CNN
announced Friday that his administration would target Memphis as part
of his efforts to across the nation’s major cities.
“I’ll be the first to say it right now, again, we’re going to
Memphis,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” in an interview.
Calling the city “deeply troubled,” Trump suggested the mayor and
Tennessee governor were happy with the action, which could include the
“National Guard and anybody else we need.”
But Memphis Mayor Paul Young said at a Friday afternoon news conference
that it was not done at his request, asserting that he learned in the
morning “that the President and Governor are looking to bring Federal
resources to our city which include the National Guard, which they have
the authority to do.”
“I want to be clear I did not ask for the National Guard and I
don’t think it is the way to drive down crime,” he said. “However
that decision has already been made.”
Trump had previously threatened and wrote in a Truth Social post that
city is “about to find out why it’s called the Department of
WAR.” But while the Department of Homeland Security has announced an
immigration crackdown there, the mobilization of troops Trump promised
has not materialized.
“I would have preferred going to Chicago,” he said Friday as he
announced the impending action in Tennessee.
In Memphis, a blue city in a state that is governed by a Republican,
Trump found state officials, at least, were more receptive to his
efforts. The city had the highest violent crime rate last year among US
cities with a population over 250,000, according to a CNN review of FBI
data. Gov. Bill Lee said Friday he’d been in “constant
communication” with the Trump administration to develop a plan to
fight crime in the city and that he’d be speaking to the president
that afternoon “to work out details of the mission.” GOP Sen.
Marsha Blackburn also welcomed Trump’s announcement, saying the
president “answered my call to do whatever it takes to Make Memphis
Safe Again.”
But Trump’s decision also highlighted the challenging political
tightrope Young, a Democrat, has navigated in recent months,
underscoring how the Trump administration has put Democratic officials
in a bind as they seek to fight crime in their cities without being
viewed as kowtowing to the White House.
Discussions around federal assistance with Memphis crime kicked off
between Young, state and federal officials in March, according to a
source familiar with the situation. Young, the source said, “wasn’t
quite there yet. He was worried about the optics of working with the
administration.” But after a surge in crime, Young was more receptive
to working with Trump’s team during a meeting in April, the source
said.
In June, Young met with FBI Director Kash Patel; Gov. Lee; Sens. Bill
Hagerty and Blackburn, both Republicans; and Democratic Rep. Steve
Cohen, along with other officials in Washington, DC, the source said.
The group discussed an effort to send FBI resources to Memphis, ramp up
federal charges and go after violent offenders. But there was a
recognition in this meeting that the initiative, dubbed “Operation
Viper,” should not be advertised widely as a federal crackdown.
“We’re not talking about this. It’s not effective if we’re all
out there talking about it. And so it was like, mum’s the word,
don’t talk about it,” the source said.
The announcement Friday is viewed as phase two of Operation Viper, the
source said. For his part, Young indicated Friday he was receptive to
some federal law enforcement help – but did not want the National
Guard deployed to his city against his will.
“I am focused on the resources. FBI, DEA, ATF, those are the things
that I believe will truly help us be able to support law enforcement
and reduce violent crime. I do not support the National Guard,” Young
said. “The Mayor doesn’t have a say or the authority to stop them
from coming. So my goal is to make sure that as they come, that I have
an opportunity to work with them to strategize at how they engage in
this community.”
In an interview with CNN’s Victor Blackwell on Saturday, Young said
he’s “certainly not happy about the National Guard,” adding he
does look forward to finding new ways to address crime in the city.
“We want to make sure that as these individuals come into our city
and in our community, that they are able to engage in a way that is not
threatening and that they are supportive to our law enforcement
efforts,” Young said.
After the Trump administration federalized the Washington, DC, police
department and surged federal law enforcement and troops across the
nation’s capital last month, crime in the city is down and hundreds
of people accused of being in the US illegally . But tourism numbers
have also declined, and some restaurants in the city are hurting for
customers, CNN has . At the suggestion of Attorney General Pamela
Bondi, the source said, Young spoke with Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel
Bowser.
Trump’s emergency order that enabled him to take over DC’s police
department expired earlier this week, though members of the National
Guard are expected to remain in the city, along with a surge of federal
law enforcement officers who have been seen patrolling highly touristed
areas in the city.
Tennessee was among the states to to DC, although it is unclear whether
those troops will now be removed to patrol their own state.
Local officials criticize move
Some local officials in Memphis spoke out against Trump’s plans.
Lee Harris, the mayor of Shelby County, which includes Memphis, has
publicly Tennessee’s governor to “please reconsider” the National
Guard deployments, and said in a on Thursday that “the occupation of
US cities” puts the country at risk of “losing our democracy.”
Memphis City Council member Jeff Warren, a Democrat, told CNN that the
deployment of troops in his city “is legal” but “not what we
need.”
“What we need more than the National Guard is the federal government
to continue paying for the violence-prevention programs that have been
successful in lowering our murder rate,” Warren said, noting that the
Trump administration $500 million in public safety grants. “We love
our National Guard, but we don’t think that’s going to be a
long-term solution.”
Another Democratic councilmember, Jerri Green, said Trump’s
“unwarranted and undemocratic” deployment could hamper existing
efforts to reduce crime because members of the Tennessee National Guard
will be pulled away from their day jobs as police officers,
firefighters and prison guards.
“They’re going to do political theater and terrorize a lot of our
community,” said Green, who is running for governor in . “The last
time we had federal troops in Memphis was during the Civil War. I
don’t think this $1 million-a-day dog and pony show will make our
residents feel any safer.”
Before the Trump announcement, Memphis police had already been working
with federal law enforcement partners to apprehend dangerous criminals
with outstanding warrants, most of them issued by local authorities.
Police Chief C.J. Davis told CNN the city welcomed that help.
“I think you know, when you have 20 officers that are assigned to a
fugitive unit and you have over 2000 warrants, then there’s no way
that just one unit is going to be able to handle that volume of
backlog, and so bringing in our federal partners has been very helpful
and increasing the number of individuals in our Fugitive Unit, because
we continue to have, you know, warrants come in,” she said.
Davis said that though shootings and homicides are down compared to
last year, the backlog of outstanding warrants has been a struggle for
the Memphis police to handle on their own. So, she said, they created
their own task force comprised of local, county, state, and federal
partners called the Two Rivers Violent Fugitive Task Force.
Trump says CEO called for crackdown
Trump, meanwhile, credited someone unexpected for his desire to send
National Guard troops to Memphis: Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena.
Vena, Trump told Fox News on Friday, asked that National Guard troops
be sent to Chicago, St. Louis and Memphis when he met with Trump
seeking approval of his deal to buy Norfolk Southern.
According to Trump, the president was meeting with Vena because
“they’re doing a merger, and he wanted to come see me and all that
stuff.” And Trump said Vena mentioned the three cities when he asked
Vena where he should send the National Guard to next.
Trump said Vena told him that when Vena was on the FedEx board, he had
been told it wasn’t safe for him to walk one block to his hotel in
Memphis and that he needed to be driven in a bullet-proof limo. Vena
left the FedEx board in 2023.
Vena, according to Trump, cited the need for a crime crackdown in St.
Louis, which Trump said he described as having “been so badly hit.”
And he said there needed to be help for Chicago.
“He said, ‘Sir, please don’t lose Chicago. We are about to lose
Chicago. It’s a great city. You can save Chicago,’” Trump said.
Trump did not say during the Fox interview how he felt about the
proposed Union Pacific purchase of Norfolk Southern. The deal is
opposed by some rail customers who worry about how the combination
would affect their service and the rates they pay.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Correction: This article has been corrected to refer to Memphis Police
Chief C.J. Davis as “she.”
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