WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said he will next deploy National Guard troops to Memphis, one of the largest cities in the Republican-led state of Tennessee, to crack down on crime there.

"We're going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled, and the mayor is happy. He's a Democrat mayor, the mayor is happy. And the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy. Deeply troubled. We're going to fix that just like we did Washington," Trump said during a Fox News interview.

Trump's claim that the city's mayor approves of the planned intervention appears to be at stark odds with previous comments, however.

Lee Harris, the mayor of Shelby County, where Memphis is located, urged Gov. Bill Lee Thursday to "please reconsider" any plans to deploy the National Guard to the city.

"To have individuals with military fatigues, semi-automatic weapons and armored vehicles patrolling our streets is way too far, it's anti-democratic and it's anti-American," Harris said during an interview with local broadcaster WREG. 

"I think we’re on the brink of something that is going to change all our appreciation for freedoms. The way you can take away democratic liberties is to make sure people don’t have a way to protest, and the way to do that is to patrol the streets with military vehicles," he added.