A month after Donald Trump militarized Washington, D.C., the president and his team have repeatedly talked about other cities that might be next on the Republican’s deployment list. There’s been great uncertainty, however, about which one.
In recent weeks, the White House has pointed to Chicago — a city the president has threatened in ridiculous ways — and Baltimore, but there have also been public references to Milwaukee, New York and San Francisco. Last week, Trump even raised the prospect of deploying the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, apparently because of something he’d seen on television the night before.
On Tuesday night, the president told reporters that he and his team would announce “another city that we’re going to very shortly.” He added, “We’ll announce it probably tomorrow.”
The news was apparently a little late, but on Friday morning, Trump made an unexpected announcement during a Fox News interview. The Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump said Friday he’ll send the National Guard to Memphis to address crime concerns there with the support of the mayor and the governor. Trump, a Republican, said on Fox News Channel ‘the mayor is happy’ and ‘the governor is happy’ about the pending deployment. The mayor is a Democrat, and the governor is a Republican.
He said the city is “deeply troubled” and “we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.”
Trump: "Maybe I'll be the first to say it right now — we're going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled. The mayor is happy. He's a Democrat. And the gov is happy. We're gonna fix that just like we did DC. I would've preferred going to Chicago … we'll bring in the military too if we need it."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-12T12:25:50.332Z
By all appearances, this looks like a situation in which the president wanted to send troops into a Democratic-led city in a blue state, faced resistance and quickly pivoted to a Democratic-led city in a red state.
Indeed, Trump effectively said as much during his Fox News appearance, conceding, “I would’ve preferred going to Chicago.” The White House hasn’t yet said what kind of deployment of federal resources the president has in mind, but if the plan involves National Guard troops, it’s worth emphasizing that Tennessee’s incumbent governor, Republican Bill Lee, doesn’t need Trump’s involvement to call up the Guard to go to Memphis. As governor, Lee already had the authority to mobilize his own Guard troops whenever he found it necessary. The latest CBS News/YouGov poll found that a 58% majority of Americans are against the deployment of National Guard troops to American cities to address street crime. Evidently, that isn’t stopping the president or his administration. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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