WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said Monday that he is deploying the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, the latest US city to become the target of what he calls an anti-crime initiative.

The Guard will be joined by the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Marshals, Trump said.

"A person is four times more likely to be murdered in Memphis, Tennessee today than in Mexico City, and you know, Mexico City is not a cakewalk," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "It's been overrun with carjackings, robbery, shootings and killings."

Trump established what he called the Memphis Safe Task Force via a presidential memorandum. A copy of the document provided by the White House says the group's "objective shall be to end street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent."

Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom Trump tapped to lead the Memphis crackdown, said federal agencies are "going to do everything we can to make Memphis safe again."

"We've all been going nonstop, working hand in hand together," Bondi said.

Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee thanked Trump for his "commitment for federal resources to the great city of Memphis."

"I've been in office seven years. I'm tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back," he said.

Trump previously claimed the mayor of Memphis was also on board for the Guard's deployment, but the county mayor and the city mayor have both voiced opposition to the planned effort.

“I do not support the National Guard — however, they are coming. It’s not the mayor’s call,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young said Friday, according to the local WREG broadcaster. “The mayor doesn’t have the say or the authority to stop them from coming. So my goal is to make sure that, as they come, that I have an opportunity to work with them to strategize on how they engage in this community.”

Trump said that after Memphis, Chicago will "probably" be the next city he sends the Guard to.

"We were going to hold it off. We're going to do some of the smaller ones. And the truth is our people are so good," Trump said.

Unlike Memphis, Trump faces opposition from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Trump has previously deployed the Guard, as well as the Marines, to Los Angeles to crack down on anti-immigration raid protests in June. He followed that effort up by federalizing the local police force in Washington, DC and sending in US troops in August.

The Los Angeles effort has since been put on pause after a federal judge ruled the deployment was in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which generally prohibits the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement. Trump has appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit.