Memphis lawmakers plan resolution urging police not to provide security for Trump event

Two council members in Memphis, Tenn., said on Wednesday they plan to present a resolution calling on the local police department to decline escorting former President Trump when he visits the area later this month.

Trump is slated to attend an installment of the “American Freedom Tour” on June 18, which the event website describes as a “celebration of faith, family, unalienable rights and God-given American freedoms” with prominent conservatives. The event will be held at the Landers Center in Southaven, Miss., located less than 20 miles from Memphis.

Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley Jr., a Democratic candidate for Tennessee governor, and Councilman Martavius Jones said they would present the resolution at the council’s meeting next Tuesday.

“[Trump] will most likely be flying into Memphis International Airport,” Smiley said in a statement. 

“As we know, the Memphis Police Department is already experiencing a shortage of officers to patrol our communities,” he said. “I do not believe that it is a prudent use of police manpower and Memphians’ taxpayer dollars to escort the former president to an event in Mississippi.”

Smiley also noted billboards have been erected in the city advertising Trump’s visit.

The event will also include appearances by Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, conservative commentators Candace Owens and Dinesh D’Souza and Mark Lamb, the sheriff of Pinal County, Ariz., according to its website.

Todd Mastry, the executive director of the Landers Center, told The Hill that the Secret Service will be in charge of protective measures at the event, as the agency was when Trump visited the venue in 2018 as president.

“There could be differences since he is now a former president rather than a sitting president, as is normal,” he said.

Secret Service spokesperson Steve Kopek declined to comment.

“Due to the need to maintain operational security, the U.S. Secret Service does not comment on the means, methods or resources used to conduct our protective operations,” he told The Hill.

The Hill has reached out to the Memphis Police Department and Trump’s office for comment.

Trump has continued to stump for Republican candidates and conservative causes since leaving the White House.

The former president addressed the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston on Friday in the wake of the mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, calling on Democrats to pass “school security” bills.

The next day, he traveled to Casper, Wyo., to stump for Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R) primary challenger, Harriet Hageman. Cheney had drawn the ire of Trump and his allies for voting in favor of the former president’s second impeachment and serving on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the Capitol.

Trump has also in recent weeks traveled to Pennsylvania to support Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz. He stumped for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance (R) and held two rallies in Nebraska for gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster (R), who went on to lose the primary.

—Updated at 1:59 p.m.