President Donald Trump said the head of a railroad company suggested sending the National Guard to St. Louis.
Trump announced Friday he would send the National Guard to Memphis to address crime during an interview on Fox News' "Fox & Friends." He said he had chosen Memphis because it was suggested by Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena.
Trump said when he asked Vena where else he should send Guard members, Vena said St. Louis.
"I said to him: 'Where else should we go? Where would you say,'" Trump said. "He said, 'Sir, please, do me a favor. St. Louis has been so badly hit. It's very hard. Very very hard.'"
A spokesperson for Union Pacific declined to comment on the specifics of the conversation but said Vena and the president discussed the creation of a transcontinental railroad during a recent Oval Office meeting.
"They also addressed the safety and security of all Americans, and that we regularly collaborate with communities to keep our employees and customers' cargo safe," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump has been focused on deploying the National Guard to majority-Democratic cities in what he says is a push to combat crime and illegal immigration.
A month ago, Trump declared an emergency, took over the Washington, D.C., police force and deployed more than 2,000 National Guard troops in the District. He was able to take control of National Guard there because the jurisdiction is not a state. In states, the National Guard is commanded by the governor.
Chicago had also been a focus for the president. But earlier this week, Trump said he would instead turn to a city in a state whose governor "would love us to be there," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has repeatedly said the military does not belong in cities.
In Missouri, the Trump administration has asked Gov. Mike Kehoe to deploy the National Guard to help federal immigration enforcement.
In June, Kehoe declared a state of emergency and activated the Missouri National Guard in response to planned immigration protests. The demonstrations were peaceful, and the governor did not ultimately deploy the Guard. The Missouri National Guard was also in St. Louis for about a month after the May 16 tornado to help with debris cleanup.
A spokeswoman for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what discussions his administration may have had with Trump about deploying the Guard to St. Louis for crime-fighting purposes.
Mayor Cara Spencer told STLPR she was unaware of any planning at the state or federal level for a guard deployment, and said she was "confident" the city would be made aware of any planning in advance.
"My office and the Governor's Office have been and continue to remain in contact on the issue," she said by email.
St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Megan Green said that although Trump seems to fixate on a different city every day, it's important not to discount the rhetoric.
"If St. Louis is on his mind, it needs to be on his mind for disaster response," she said. "We are still reeling from the May 16 tornado and are waiting on the federal government to act. If the National Guard is to come here, it needs to be for disaster removal, not to take over our city or try to suppress our population."
Spencer agreed.
"St. Louis absolutely needs President Trump's help to lead in a great American comeback story for our city and Missouri by bringing in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as soon as possible to take on the massive task of removing tornado debris," she said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which would authorize the use of the Army Corps for debris removal, has not yet responded to the mayor's request.
The narrative of out-of-control crime pushed by Trump and others does not match the reality of the numbers in St. Louis.
Data provided by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department shows that as of the last week of August, serious crime such as homicide, shootings and felony theft was down across the city by 17% compared to 2024. Homicide dropped more than 40% between 2020 — when the city saw a near-record 263 killings — and 2024.
Crime remains too high, Spencer said, "but we have seen massive improvements in the past five years, and that positive trend is continuing, including now that our police department answers to Kehoe."
But public perception of crime remains a complicated issue. A poll by YouGov released July 30 found that more than half of U.S. adults surveyed believed that killings had increased since 1990, even though the number of homicides per 100,000 people has fallen by about a third since 1990, according to the nonparatisan Council on Criminal Justice.
Updated with comments from Mayor Cara Spencer.
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