Stephen Miller issued a shocking directive to police officials in a fiery speech in Memphis.
The White House deputy chief of staff joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi in Tennessee on Wednesday to promote Donald Trump’s so-called “Memphis Safe Task Force.”
In a rant aimed at motivating the federal law enforcement agencies operating in the state as part of Trump’s crackdown on a claimed crime wave, Miller told Memphis police officers they were now “unleashed” to fight crime by order of the president.
“We are sending in real cops with guns and badges to go out with you on the street every single night, making arrests,” Miller said. “These are people who have taken down drug cartel kingpins, the worst criminal offenders in the United States, standing with you, shoulder to shoulder to shoulder.”
At one point, Miller told the assembled local police officers, “I see the guns and badges in this room. You are unleashed. The handcuffs you’re carrying, they’re not on you anymore, they’re on the criminals. And whatever you need to get it done, we’re gonna get it done.”
Implementing Trump’s presidential order, which was signed on Monday, Miller promised to “liberate this city from the criminal element that has plagued it for generations.”
The Trump henchman boasted that the administration had deployed over 13 government agencies, including the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE, and the Department of Defense, which Hegseth has been rebranding as the “Department of War.”
“They’re not going to be sitting behind a desk at a keyboard,” Miller promised.
“Every resource we have, federal, state, and local, we are going to use to dismantle their [criminal] networks without apology and without mercy,” Miller said. “Everything we have, we are going to bulldoze the criminal element of this city and liberate all the law-abiding citizens in this city.”
Claiming he wanted to eliminate “any physical space, anywhere” in Memphis where a citizen didn’t feel safe, a fired-up Miller then took his impassioned rant up a notch.
“This is Memphis, this is the United States of America, and all that bulls--t is done,” Miller blasted. “It’s over, it’s finished.”
“The gangbangers that you deal with, they think that they’re ruthless, they have no idea how ruthless we are,” Miller added.
“They think they’re tough, they have no idea how tough we are. They think that they’re hardcore, we are so much more hardcore than they are, and we have the entire weight of the United States government behind us. What do they have? They have nothing behind them. So we are gonna win, they’re gonna lose.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
While the city has experienced a large volume of violent crimes including carjackings and homicides in recent years, Memphis Police this month reported historic crime reductions. They stated that overall crime is at a 25-year low, with murder at a six-year low and sexual assault at a 20-year low.
Hegseth thanked the assembled Memphis law officers for working in dangerous places “where politicians spend a lot of time second-guessing... the impossible decisions that you have to make that they will never understand.”
“We’re not here to second-guess you,” Hegseth added. “We’re here to have your back, to unleash you to do your job, so you come home safely. Our department is here to enable you, law enforcement, to do your job, to help protect your facilities, help protect your people, so that you, your hands can be untied, to secure your city.”
Miller confirmed that the call had come from the top.
“President Trump had decided this is a priority,” he said. “And when President Trump makes a decision, this team behind me today executes.”
Hegseth, Bondi, and Miller spent around an hour in the Shelby County Office of Preparedness and left via the rear entrance, according to WREG TV.
Bondi said on X that 53 arrests had been made and 20 illegal firearms seized in the first two days of the Memphis Safe Task Force.
City officials said the National Guard will not wear masks and that armored tanks will not be used. Guard troops will not be armed, and cannot make arrests or issue warrants.
