President Donald Trump declared Monday that the crime problem in Memphis, Tennessee, has been solved through the Memphis Safe Task Force.
Trump’s comment came during a Memphis Safe Task Force Roundtable, where he highlighted high levels of crime in the city the year he returned to the Oval Office.
“It was averaging far more than one murder per day, with a crime rate higher than Colombia, Mexico City, or Baghdad … I shouldn’t be saying this, but here’s the good news: it’s been fixed, alright? I hate to say this because it’s so negative,” he said.
“In the year before I took office, Memphis saw more than 12,500 violent assaults, 429 rapes, and 7,600 burglaries and armed robberies … and getting worse,” he added.
He said the crime levels were a product of “years of local politicians, judges, and prosecutors who sided with violent criminals over law-abiding citizens.”
Fox 13 Memphis reported on March 18 that overall crime in the city is down 43 percent compared to the same period in 2025, before Trump instituted the task force. Meanwhile, the White House shared figures Monday, underscoring the stark drop in specific crime categories:
- Motor vehicle thefts are down 67%.
- Robberies are down 51%.
- Sexual assaults are down 38%.
- Homicides are down 35%.
- Burglaries are down 32%.
- Aggravated assaults are down 31%.
Trump announced in September efforts to crack down on crime in Memphis on the heels of his immediate success in quelling crime in Washington, DC. On September 15, he signed a memo establishing the Memphis Safe Task Force.
“It’s very important because of the crime that’s going on, not only in Memphis, in many cities, and we’re going to take care of all of them step by step, just like we did in D.C.” Trump said ahead of the signing while flanked by Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), and Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN).
“We have virtually no crime in DC right now, and we’re going to keep it that way,” he added. “It’s our nation’s capital, we’re going to keep it that way, or we’re going to federalize it if we had to, but we don’t have to anymore because it’s in such great shape.”
