President Trump announced Friday that he is sending National Guard troops to Memphis to address the city’s high crime rates.

Trump called Memphis “deeply troubled” and suggested the deployment could include the Army if necessary, responding to long-standing concerns about violent crime in the city.

Memphis has the highest violent crime rate among U.S. cities with populations over 100,000, with 2,501.3 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024—nearly seven times the national average—and the fourth-highest homicide rate at 40.6 per 100,000.

Tennessee officials, including Gov. Bill Lee and several Republican lawmakers, have supported the deployment, while some Democrats argue it unfairly stigmatizes the city and risks intimidating residents, Axios has reported.

The announcement follows Trump’s broader focus on deploying military or National Guard forces to cities with high crime, a strategy criticized for inconsistent targeting and for downplaying recent crime declines in majority-Black cities like Memphis.