President Trump’s administration targets Memphis, citing alarming crime rates and failed local policies.
In a move to address what his administration calls “rampant violent crime fueled by failed Democrat governance,” President Donald J. Trump announced today a plan to deploy federal resources to Memphis, Tennessee.
The city has been grappling with one of the nation’s highest violent crime rates, a trend that continues despite a national decline in similar statistics.
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The Trump administration’s initiative comes in response to staggering crime data from Memphis. In 2024, the city recorded the highest violent crime rate and the third-highest murder rate in the United States. Its total crime rate was 344% higher than the national average.
So far in 2025, Memphis has already seen 149 murders. According to the administration, Memphis’s murder rate in 2024 surpassed that of notoriously high-crime U.S. cities like Chicago and Detroit and was significantly higher than international cities like Mexico City and London.
The White House press release attributes the city’s crime issues, in part, to local policy changes, specifically the 2022 overhaul of Shelby County’s bail system.
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The new system, which reportedly relies on secured cash bail “only as a last resort,” has been linked to the release of individuals who later went on to commit violent crimes. The release cites several examples of suspects charged with serious offenses, including attempted murder and possession of a machine gun, who were released without bail only to be later involved in further criminal activity.
President Trump’s action has been met with a welcoming response from state elected officials, though specific details on the scale and nature of the federal deployment have not yet been released. The announcement marks an aggressive escalation of the administration’s focus on law and order in major urban centers.
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