Many residents of Memphis, Tenn. have been embracing President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to the city as part of his broader crime crackdown.
Trump said during a Sept. 12 interview on “Fox & Friends” that he was planning to deploy National Guard troops to Memphis, calling the city “deeply troubled.” Many Memphis locals have been supportive of the roughly 150 members of the National Guard arriving there earlier in October, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday.
“I’m looking for all the help I can get, I wish there was more,” John Green, who manages a candy store on the city’s Main Street, told the WSJ.
Green also told the outlet that business has been dismal thus far in 2025, saying “people just don’t want to come here anymore.” Meanwhile, George Campbell, a 64-year-old psychologist based in Memphis, told the WSJ that the National Guard troops in the city had helped to calm concerns about violent crime.
“It’s safe. What happened? Control is what happened,” Campbell said. “It was out of control. This is necessary.”
Memphis has the highest rate of violent crime in the U.S., with 2,501 instances of violent crime for every 100,000 people, WSMV, a Nashville-based affiliate of NBC, reported on Sept. 5, citing data from the FBI.
Though, the Memphis Police Department reported on Sept. 9 that overall crime in the city dropped to a 25-year low, with robbery, burglary and larceny also hitting 25-year lows.
Democratic Memphis Mayor Paul Young told the WSJ during an interview at City Hall that while the National Guard troops being deployed to his city is not what he “would have wanted,” he is now focused on how to “make the best of this situation.”
“They made a decision to bring the National Guard,” Young told the outlet. “It’s not what I would have wanted, but the decision was made, and so my goal at that point is to figure out how to make the best of this situation for Memphis.”
Moreover, Gale Jones Carson, president of the Memphis Urban League, signaled to the WSJ that she was questioning whether the National Guard’s presence in the city is the best solution for helping to tackle crime.
“Do we need help with the crime in Memphis? Yes, we do,” Carson told the outlet. “But do we need to be invaded?”
Still, Claire Norwood, 18, told the WSJ that she has welcomed the fact that troops are in Memphis, saying “most of us feel a little safer.”
Trump unveiled a presidential memorandum on Sept. 15, which established a task force to eliminate “street and violent crime in Memphis.” The president wrote in the memorandum that Memphis is “a beacon of American culture that was Elvis’s home and is often called the birthplace of rock and roll and the blues, should be safe and secure for all of its citizens and Americans who visit its historic landmarks such as Graceland, Beale Street, and the Memphis Pyramid.”
Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote in an Oct. 17 post to X that Trump is helping to make Memphis safe again.
“Thanks to President @realDonaldTrump, AG @PamBondi, and FBI Director @Kash_Patel, Memphis is being made SAFE again,” Blackburn wrote in the social media post. “Before we know it, the rest of the country will look to Memphis as the model for fighting crime.”
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