President Donald Trump traveled to Memphis on Monday to personally tout the results of a federal law enforcement surge in the city, telling attendees at a Safe Task Force Roundtable that the operation had produced one of the largest and fastest crime declines in American history.
“What we’ve done in Memphis is incredible,” Trump said Monday during the roundtable event. “One of the largest, fastest crime declines in the history of our country.”
The administration launched the Memphis Safe Task Force earlier this year, deploying federal agents from the FBI, ATF, DEA, and U.S. Marshals Service alongside local law enforcement in a targeted crackdown on violent crime. Memphis has consistently ranked among the most dangerous large cities in the United States, with homicide rates that have put it near the top of national rankings in recent years.
Trump made the trip to Tennessee after departing Palm Beach, Florida, earlier in the day. He also made an unscheduled stop at Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate.
“I love Elvis,” Trump told reporters at Graceland. The visit was not on the president’s public schedule.
The Memphis task force model mirrors federal crime-fighting operations the Trump administration has deployed in other high-crime cities since taking office. Administration officials have argued that local progressive prosecutors and city leadership in many major American cities have been unwilling or unable to control violent crime, and that federal intervention fills the gap.
Trump has long cited Memphis alongside Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit as examples of what he calls Democratic governance failures. The city’s homicide rate in 2023 was among the highest per capita in the country.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department has made targeted urban crime surges a centerpiece of the department’s domestic priorities. Bondi announced in January that the Memphis operation would prioritize carjackings, gang activity, and repeat violent offenders.
