Is Memphis Mayor Paul Young “happy” about federal troops coming to a city that didn’t ask for them, as President Donald Trump claimed in a recent interview?
“That would be an overstatement,” Young told reporters with a wry smile Friday. “I am focused on resources — FBI, DEA, ATF — those are the things that I believe will truly help us support law enforcement and reduce violent crime.”
Flanked by a broad coalition of business, political and community leaders at City Hall, Young sought to project unity in a moment of uncertainty. His message: If Memphis has no control over whether federal troops arrive, city leaders must find a way to ensure their presence strengthens the community.
Young said he hopes to use the days and weeks ahead to coordinate with state and federal officials on where the incoming resources go and how they are used.
“The mayor doesn’t have the authority to stop them,” Young said. “But my goal is to make sure that as they come, I have an opportunity to work with them to strategize on how they engage in this community. We want to make sure that whatever resources are provided, they reinforce the strategies that we know are working in Memphis — not distract from them.
“That means aligning their presence with the work our law enforcement is already doing, not creating confusion or duplication. If they’re here, they need to be part of the solution we’ve been building,” Young said
He added that he has spoken with other mayors who have faced similar deployments, including Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, and he hopes to build the same kind of working relationship.
State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, a Marine veteran, struck a similar note, urging Memphians not to panic about soldiers in the streets.
“There’s not going to be tanks rolling in the streets of Memphis. The roads couldn’t even support tanks,” he said.
Instead, Parkinson suggested the deployment could be reframed as an opportunity.
“They’re not all infantry. Some are military police, some are in accounting, some in medicine,” he said. “Let’s get an inventory of who’s coming, what jobs they do, and then backfill where we’re short. That frees up our own resources to do more in our community with the people we already have.”
Parkinson added that troops may not arrive for “25 or 30 days,” leaving time for dialogue with Gov. Bill Lee and others.
“The president wants a picture — ‘we’re sending troops into Memphis’ — but on the ground, you might see people picking up trash,” he said. “I just don’t think it warrants the hysteria some are trying to create.”
Statehouse support vs. local pushback
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee welcomed the federal deployment.
“I’m grateful for the President’s unwavering support and commitment to providing every resource necessary to serve Memphians,” Lee said in a statement. “Memphis remains on a path to greatness, and we are not going to let anything hold them back.”
That stance stood in sharp contrast to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, who denounced the move as “anti-democratic” and potentially unlawful.
“The President’s announcement that troops will occupy Tennessee communities is disappointing, anti-democratic, and violates American norms and possibly U.S. laws,” Harris said. “In the short term, the President’s incursion will likely cause confusion and fear in many of our communities, particularly the most vulnerable ones. In the long term, the mark of Tennessee communities being occupied by federal forces will hurt our state’s reputation for generations.
“Let’s be clear: the President sending troops to Tennessee will interfere and have a chilling effect on Tennesseans’ ability to exercise critical freedoms, such as the freedom to protest and the liberty to travel.” Harris added. “We will do everything in our power to prevent this incursion into Tennessee and to protect the rights, safety, and dignity of every resident in our communities.”
Trump vs. Memphis: Crime Data in Contrast
President Trump has painted a dire picture, describing Memphis as “deeply troubled” and insisting the National Guard is needed to “fix that, just like we did Washington.” He also claimed that both the mayor and governor were “happy” with the plan.
But city leaders dispute both the framing and the statistics.
Young pointed to measurable progress in crime reduction across multiple categories. In 2024, Memphis saw a 13% overall reduction in crime, a 19% drop in violent crime, a 29% decline in murders, and a 37% fall in carjackings. He said 2025 is on pace to meet or exceed those reductions.
“We’re seeing double-digit percentage reductions in crime across the board,” Young said. “I believe what we should do is double down on the strategies that we know work.”
Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis reinforced that those trends are not abstract.
“Over the last 60 days, we had a federal operation with FBI, DEA, ATF focused on the worst of the worst in our community. We were very successful in that,” she said. “We need more of that kind of resource — investigative power, analytical power, software, social media analysis. Those tools help us keep crime moving in the right direction.”
Davis stressed that MPD remains in charge. “We want to make sure our community members understand that the Memphis Police Department is the primary public safety agency in the city of Memphis,” she said. “Ideally, we’ll have a memorandum of understanding so we’re all on the same page about who’s doing what.”
Cohen: ‘A racist move’
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen was more blunt in his assessment of the deployment, calling it politically motivated and racially charged.
“It’s a racist move,” Cohen told the TSD. “This is a Black city, it’s a Black mayor, and it’s a white president who likes to cater to white people who like to send powerful troops or law enforcement officers after Black people. And it’s been a curse of this country for decades, centuries.”
Cohen said the symbolism was more telling than the substance.
“Trump has made this into something that it isn’t,” he added. “There was crime in Washington, and there’s crime in Memphis and Nashville and Detroit and New Orleans and St. Louis. But he’s not going to solve it by sending federal troops in for a couple of months. That’s not going to change it.”
Mulroy: ‘Performative’ deployments
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy added his concerns, arguing that the National Guard is the wrong tool for the job.
“I hope the governor will tell the Trump administration that a better strategy would be sending more FBI and other federal law enforcement agents — people with actual training in civilian law enforcement, unlike military troops,” Mulroy said.
“These high-profile, short-term military deployments risk seeming performative and leaving no lasting impact.”
Unanswered questions
Even with local, state and federal leaders in communication, major questions remain.
“When will they come? How many people are going to come? How long will they be here? What are they going to wear? Where are they going to be geographically in the city? What assignments will they have?” Young asked.
Davis echoed the need for clarity.
“If there is an opportunity for more resources to be in our city, what we have to do is make an assessment as to what their role would be,” she said. “We will be communicating very closely with the National Guard to talk about the plan, the numbers, what communities will be affected, and how our officers continue to do the work they have to do every day without this being a distraction.”
Beyond troops: Long-term goals
While the National Guard may soon be visible on Memphis streets, Young closed the press conference by insisting the real work lies in addressing root causes of crime.
“My ultimate goal is to make sure we get a long-term partnership and commitment with the state, the federal government and community partners — to invest in outreach and rehabilitation, in trauma services, in housing and small businesses, in building a workforce and pipeline for the jobs of the future,” he said.
“Most importantly, we must remain committed to raising the level of hope in the hearts of the people that live in this community. Hope is about a clear image of the future and a true belief that image can be achieved. For far too many, that hope has been gone. My goal as mayor is to make sure everything we do is centered around elevating that hope.”
TSD Contributing Writer Dalisia Ballinger contributed to this report, which was also supplemented by reporting from The Associated Press.
