Donald Trump on Monday signed an govt order that will ship nationwide guard troops into Memphis, in a “reproduction” of the administration’s increasing military-led response to city crime in Democratic-run cities.
The transfer was welcome by Tennessee’s Republican governor, Invoice Lee, who stood behind Trump within the Oval Workplace as he signed a presidential memo establishing a Memphis Protected Job Drive.
“We’re going to repair that similar to we did Washington,” Trump stated.
Asserting the taskforce in an Oval Workplace assembly, Trump stated the troops would work alongside federal authorities from varied businesses, together with the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice); the US Marshall’s service and the Division of Justice. In his remarks on Monday, the president cited a slew of crime statistics and vowed to finish the “savagery” and to “make Memphis protected once more”.
Lee thanked the president for the deployment. “I’m uninterested in crime holding the good metropolis of Memphis again,” the governor stated.
Associated: Trump says he’ll ship nationwide guard to Democratic-run Memphis
Trump advised Lee that the crime-fighting crackdown “might be your proudest second” and predicted that crime within the metropolis would “plummet” inside weeks.
Trump was additionally joined on the Oval Workplace signing by the state’s Republican senators, Marsha Blackburn and Invoice Hagerty.
Trump deployed nationwide guard troops to Washington final month and federalized town’s police power to “crack down” on crime within the nation’s capitol. Violent crime was already at a 30-year low within the metropolis.
Hypothesis had centered on Chicago as Trump’s subsequent metropolis to ship within the nationwide guard and different federal authorities. However the administration has confronted fierce resistance from Illinois’s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, and town’s Democratic leaders.
Trump on Monday stated: “We’re going to be doing Chicago in all probability subsequent” whereas additionally suggesting {that a} deployment wasn’t imminent.
“We don’t need to lose Chicago,” Trump stated, noting that he has a “nice, lovely constructing” on town’s skyline.
Talking earlier on Monday, Pritzker advised reporters that sending troops right into a US metropolis was a “horrible thought” and was hopeful Trump would finally resolve towards motion in Chicago. “We by no means actually know what he intends to do,” Pritzker added.
Hours later on the White Home, Trump stated his administration wouldn’t be deterred by Pritzker’s opposition.
“We hope we’ve got the governor’s assist,” Trump stated. “But when we don’t, we’re doing it with out him.”
Trump additionally floated St Louis, New Orleans and Baltimore as potential future targets. “We need to save these locations,” he stated.
