Trump Says He’s Sending The National Guard To Another City Run By A Democratic Party Member
What began in Los Angeles and Washington DC is being expanded to any other place the president thinks is being run by people who just aren’t subservient enough to the GOP. The next city in line for the Trump Treatment is Memphis, Tennessee, which is (of course) run by a member of the Democratic party, Mayor Paul Young. And, as is par for the fucking course, this announcement wasn’t made in the White House but rather during a Trump appearance on one of his preferred “news” outlets:
President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s planning to send federal law enforcement and the National Guard into Memphis, Tennessee, to lower crime in the city following his surge into Washington, D.C., over the last month.
“We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” in New York. “The mayor is happy. He’s a Democrat. And the governor of Tennessee, the governor is happy. We’re gonna fix that just like we did Washington.”
Well, now that Trump has let a lot of syllables dribble out of his mouth, let’s get back to the facts.
First, there’s no indication the “mayor is happy” with the impending invasion. In fact, he was never directly informed, having instead learned of Trump’s intentions the ways millions of US citizens did: by being informed that Trump had made this announcement during a Fox News segment.
Second, while Memphis has an ongoing gun violence problem, it is by no means “deeply troubled,” any more than Washington DC or Chicago (another potential Trump target). Like pretty much everywhere else in America (except for a few places the Trump administration is deliberately ignoring), crime rates in Memphis are back to historical lows.
Days earlier Memphis police reported drops in every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025 compared with the same period in previous years. Overall crime hit a 25-year low, and murder a six-year low, police said.
In fact, any discussion of the Memphis Invasion has completely excluded the mayor of the city being targeted by Trump. Instead, Trump has chosen to speak directly to Fox News commentators and the Republican governor of the state, Bill Lee. The primary stakeholder in Trump’s latest martial law soft opening has been excluded entirely, while being referred to as “happy” that this thing he knew nothing about will soon be happening.
Here’s how it’s going on the home front, as Trump brings the “War on Whateverthefuck” to Mayor Young’s doorstep:
The mayor said Saturday that the specifics remain unknown about how many troops will come and when, their exact role and more. He expects to learn more next week.
Asked what he would recommend the National Guard focus on in Memphis, Young suggested tasks such as support for big events, including traffic assistance. He also said they could assist law enforcement in monitoring cameras and call in backup when they see criminal activity, or lend a hand with neighborhood “beautification.”
So, it’s going to be more of the stuff we saw in Washington DC: massive police and military presence and Trump standing under a banner that reads “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED IN A PATRIOTIC FONT.” National Guard troops will go back to shitting in jeeps, maintaining lawns, worrying about their retirement pay, and otherwise standing around and wondering why they bothered to take the job in the first place.
And, to be sure, sending a massive number of soldiers and federal cops into any city is going to decrease crime rates. But that doesn’t mean the deployment is justified, nor should it be perceived as a good way to decrease criminal activity. Applauding short-term effects is the same thing as declaring you prefer the ends to justify the means. There are plenty of useful ways to decrease crime rates but none of them should ever involve the military, much less an invading force composed of federal officers that were so expendable they could be wasted on [checks notes] traffic law enforcement.