U.S. President Donald Trump poses with Tennessee Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, who hold a memorandum he just signed to send federal resources to Memphis, Tennessee, for a surge against local crime, as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi applauds, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Tennessee Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee listen as U.S.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during an event to sign a memorandum to send federal resources to Memphis, Tennessee, for a surge against local crime, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
FILE PHOTO: People walk through historic Beale Street, after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would deploy the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., September 12, 2025. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht/ File Photo
Media members ask questions after U.S. President Donald Trump, with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, signed a memorandum to send federal resources to Memphis, Tennessee, for a surge against local crime, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump established a Memphis Safe Task Force on Monday modeled after the recent federal law enforcement surge in the nation's capital, as part of a broader initiative he says is needed to combat urban violence.

He said he plans to take similar action in Chicago next.

The initiative will deploy a broad coalition of federal agencies - including the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals - alongside the National Guard and local law enforcement. Attorney General Pam Bondi will lead the operation, Trump said.

"Memphis had the highest violent crime rate, the highest property crime rate and the third-highest murder rate of any city in the nation," Trump said.

A spokesperson for the City of Memphis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump's decision to deploy federal law enforcement and National Guard troops to Washington and Memphis has drawn sharp criticism from Democratic leaders and civil rights advocates, who say the move is more political theater than public safety strategy.

Trump and Republican leaders are aggressively positioning crime as a centerpiece of their political strategy, aiming to galvanize voters around a message of law and order.

With federal deployments to Memphis and Washington, D.C., and promises of expanded crackdowns in cities like Chicago, the administration is casting violent crime as a national emergency and attempting to frame Democrats as weak on public safety.

Trump issued a memorandum to establish the task force and vowed to take similar action soon in the city of Chicago and elsewhere.

"We think Chicago is going to be next, and we'll get to St. Louis, and New Orleans we want to get into, too," Trump said.

(Reporting By Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Chris Reese and Edmund Klamann)