Trump pulls National Guard troops out of some cities — but not Memphis
Members of the Tennessee National Guard watch over the AutoZone Liberty Bowl parade down Beale Street on Jan. 1. (Greg Campbell/Special to The Daily Memphian)
President Donald Trump’s administration may have rescinded the deployments of federalized National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, but Tennessee guardsmen don’t appear to be leaving Memphis streets anytime soon.
The withdrawals were first reported by the Washington Post on Feb. 11. (Trump had previously acknowledged the move was happening in a Truth Social post Dec. 31.)
But as of Thursday, Feb. 12, daily reports from the Memphis Safe Task Force, of which the National Guard is a component, showed 1,450 guardsmen were still stationed in Memphis, a person familiar with the reports told The Daily Memphian. The news site is not naming the person because the reports have remained tightly controlled and hidden from public view.
Troops stationed in Memphis as part of the task force are deployed under a different method than some of the other U.S. cities. Using Title 32 of the U.S. Code, they are under command of Gov. Bill Lee, not Trump, even though the federal government is paying for their time.
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Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming covers public safety for The Daily Memphian, focusing on crime and the local court system. He earned his bachelor’s in journalism and strategic media from the University of Memphis.
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