President Trump Monday signed a presidential memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force to clean up crime in the Tennessee city.
The task force, according to Mr. Trump, will be a replica of the White House’s anti-crime efforts in Washington.
“You’ll see it’s a lot of the same thing, although the numbers here are really something, they’re really bad,” Mr. Trump said. “Now, we did send the FBI in about four months ago to work, and it brought some of the numbers down, and they did a great job, but we’re sending in the big force now.”
The effort in Memphis will include the National Guard; the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Agency; Immigration Customs Enforcement; Homeland Security Investigations; the U.S. Marshals and additional prosecutors led by the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Mr. Trump was flanked by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican; Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican; Ms. Bondi; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other members of his administration as he boasted about his anti-crime initiative in D.C.
“We have virtually no crime in D.C. right now, and we’re going to keep it that way. It’s our nation’s capital. We’re going to keep it that way, or we’re going to federalize it, if we had to, but we don’t have to anymore, because it’s in such great shape,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump said he plans to bring the anti-crime task force to Chicago next.
The president pushed back on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, Monday for potentially bringing back another crime wave to the city.
Mr. Trump had threatened to call for a national emergency and exercise federal authority in the District for the city government’s failure to enforce immigration laws.
The president blamed “radical left Democrats” for pressuring Ms. Bowser to halt the Metropolitan Police Department’s cooperation with federal agents in his illegal immigration crackdown, after the 30-day emergency surge of federal forces ended last week.
“Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has presided over this violent criminal takeover of our Capital for years, has informed the Federal Government that the Metropolitan Police Department will no longer cooperate with ICE in removing and relocating dangerous illegal aliens,” Mr. Trump posted early Monday on Truth Social. “If I allowed this to happen, crime would come roaring back. To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., Don’t worry, I am with you, and I won’t allow this to happen.”
