* AP…

President Donald Trump said Friday he’ll send the National Guard to Memphis to address crime concerns there with the support of the mayor and the governor.

Trump, a Republican, said on Fox News Channel “the mayor is happy” and “the governor is happy” about the pending deployment. The mayor is a Democrat, and the governor is a Republican.

He said the city is “deeply troubled” and “we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington,” where he’s sent National Guard and surged federal law enforcement.

Since sending the National Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, Trump has openly mused about sending troops to some of the nation’s most Democratic cities — including Chicago and Baltimore — claiming they are needed to crack down on crime.

* Trump’s full remarks on the Fox News Channel…

Fox and Friends: The National Guard, because they say they belong in war zones. But our city, Chicago, six people shot over the weekend, killed the weekend before that 11 more…

Trump: And that’s a good weekend.

Fox and Friends: This is happening in every major city. There’s a lunatic that’s on the street, that some Soros DA, that is allowed out. What’s going to happen?

Trump: I think maybe I’ll be the first to say it right now, again, we’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled. And the mayor is happy, he’s a Democrat mayor, the mayor is happy, and the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy, deeply troubled. We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.

I would have preferred going to Chicago. I had a man and a big, the head of a big, big railroad. They’re doing a merger, and he wanted to come see me and all that stuff. And I asked him, because, you know, that’s one of the largest train companies, maybe the largest, so you can figure out who it is, okay, Union Pacific. And he was in my office, and he started off 45 years ago with the railroad. Such a great — sir, sir, I’m a railroader. That’s the kind of guy that should run it, as opposed to a Wall Street guy that destroys the railroad, but he’s good financially. And he was a very impressive guy. And I said, ‘So what do you think, where should we go next as a city? Because we’re going to 1, 2, 3, and then we’ll do a few at a time, but we’re going to straighten out the crime of these cities.’ He said, ‘Sir, Memphis would be good because he’s on the board of FedEx.’ He said, ‘When I walk one block to my hotel, they won’t allow me to do it. They put me in an armored vehicle with bulletproof glass to take me one block.’ He said, ‘It’s so terrible.’ I said, let me ask you a question. So we’re going to Memphis. I’m just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out.

Fox and Friends: National Guard?

Trump: National Guard and anybody else we need. And by the way, we’ll bring in the military too if we need it, but National Guard. But Memphis is — look, it’s a great music city. It’s, you know, home of Elvis and everything else. But I said to him, ‘Where else should we go? Where would you say?’ He said, ‘Sir, please do me a favor. St. Louis has been so badly hit. It’s very hard, very, very hard.’ He said, ‘Don’t lose Chicago. You’re going to lose Chicago, sir. It’s a great city. You’re going to lose Chicago.’ And then we have this ‘la Pritzker’ on television every day. All he does is hit Trump. I said, does he realize last weekend he had 11 people killed and 28 wounded, 28.

Fox and Friends: Doesn’t bother him. He says he’s got the situation handled.

Trump: And he keeps saying, we have no crime problem. The week before — he had a week, we had 72 people injured and like 11 died. But every — if he does five, like you just said, five — that’s a good week. Every weekend they’re losing many people. It’s out of control.

But when this guy, who’s a smart guy here, he head’s a big-the biggest railroad, he said the way he said it. He said, Sir, please don’t lose Chicago. You about we are about to lose Chicago. It’s a great city. You can save Chicago.

Please pardon any transcription errors.

* Washington Post…

Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee, behind Nashville. Memphis has historically experienced a high crime rate, though like other major cities, it has seen a drop in crime in recent years.

“Overall crime is at a 25-year low, with robbery, burglary, and larceny also reaching 25-year lows,” the Memphis Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.

Young, the Memphis mayor, acknowledged in a statement to local media Thursday that Trump and Lee were “considering” deploying the National Guard to Memphis.

…Adding… Mayor Johnson…

Mayor Brandon Johnson Response to Trump “would have preferred” to send National Guard to Chicago

“Because of the unified opposition from community leaders and elected officials in Chicago and throughout the state, the Trump administration backed down from its threats of sending in the National Guard to Chicago. We continue to call on the federal government to send additional resources to help us continue to drive down violent crime, but we reject any military occupation of our city. The way to reduce violence is by focusing on the strategies that work: effective policing, violence prevention, and investing in communities.”

* Related…

CNBC | Trump says National Guard will deploy to Memphis next, sidestepping Chicago: Trump did not explain what legal framework the White House would use to justify a deployment of soldiers to another U.S. city. […] During his interview Friday, Trump criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom and said he expects to win all the court cases related to the National Guard’s deployment. “We think we’re going to win all of them,′ Trump said. “And we have been winning all of them.”

* Fox Chicago | Trump pivots, will send National Guard to Memphis instead of Chicago: Trump made the announcement during an interview on Fox News, saying he “would have preferred going to Chicago” but described the city as “hostile” with “professional agitators.” Both Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson opposed the idea of a deployment there.