Trump says MEMPHIS is next city on crime crackdown list

The second stop on Donald Trump's crime crackdown is Memphis, Tennessee. 

Trump said that he will be 'fixing' the southern city after many speculated the next target would be a city in a Democratic state like Chicago, Illinois or Baltimore, Maryland. 

'We're going to Memphis – Memphis is deeply troubled,' the president told Fox & Friends during a rare in-studio interview. 'We're going to fix that just like we did Washington.' 

The announcement comes after Trump took federal control of Washington, D.C. in August to stymie violent crime in the nation's capital. 

The 30-day federal takeover under the Home Rule Act ended on Wednesday, but it appears National Guard will maintain a presence at least through the end of November. 

It appears that Memphis was selected because while the city has some of the worst crime in the country, Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee also likely cooperated with the initiative for the federal government to assist in cracking down.

Trump said on Friday that even Democratic Mayor Paul Young is 'happy' with the decision.

'We're going to fix [Memphis], just like we did Washington,' Trump said, but admitted: 'I would have preferred going to Chicago.'

Memphis, Tennessee has one of the highest rates of crime in the entire country.

With a population of nearly 619,000, Memphis' violent crime rate in 2024 was 2,501 per 100,000, which is massively higher than the national rate of 380 per 100,000 people.

'We'll straighten that out,' Trump vowed from the F&F couch on Friday morning.

The president said he plans to activate National Guard troops and will bring in 'anybody else we need' to address the soaring violent crime rates in Memphis.

'By the way, we'll bring in the military too if we need it,' the president warned.

Trump also suggested that St. Louis – also a crime-ridden blue city in a red state – could be a next target for the federal crime crackdown.

But his real dream is to bring in National Guard troops to Chicago.

A reporter asked Trump last week: 'Why target Chicago and Boston when there are cities in red states with higher crime rates?'

They specifically called out Memphis and St. Louis.

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'Excuse me – Do you know how many people were killed in Chicago last weekend? Eight,' Trump replied.

'Do you know how many were killed in Chicago the week before? 7. Do you know how many people were wounded? 74 people were wounded,' he continued.

'You think there's worse than that? I don't think so.'

But the president has repeatedly suggested that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker needs to call him up before he would send in the National Guard – even though Trump insists he has the right to do it without cooperation.

Memphis’s murder rate in 2024 was higher than other notoriously high-crime cities of Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit. 

It was also roughly four times higher than Mexico City, Mexico and 27 times higher than Havana, Cuba.

The White House released a fact sheet on the announcement on Friday noting that in 2025 so far there have been 149 murders in Memphis, Tennessee.