What did Donald Trump do today?

He made yet another threat to send National Guard troops to police American citizens.

Since being, in effect, run out of Chicago by furious local opposition, Trump has been casting about for another city to deploy military forces to. Ostensibly to "fight crime," the National Guard and regular military personnel that Trump has already put in American streets have ended up doing nothing of the sort—nor can they, legally. But they have angered Americans across the political spectrum who have a problem with a President of the United States treating Americans as enemies to be subdued by a show of force.

This morning, on a Fox News appearance, Trump said he had picked Memphis as his latest target. The city of 633,000 fits the profile of the other cities Trump has deployed military forces against, or threatened to: it has a crime rate that has dropped considerably in the past year, it has a white minority population, and its mayor is a Democrat and Black. Trump claimed that Memphis's mayor was "happy" about the occupation, but that was a lie. In reality, Paul Young said, "I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime." 

Unlike in Washington, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Chicago, however, the governor of Tennessee is a Republican. Gov. Bill Lee has not offered any explanation as to why, if he thought Memphis needed a military occupation, he didn't order the Tennessee National Guard in himself. But the reason is obvious: he is doing Trump a political favor by "asking" for Trump's "help." This is something that the Democratic governors of Los Angeles and Chicago adamantly refused to do, reaping political gains in the process for standing up to Trump and, in the case of Chicago, leaving Trump essentially begging Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to beg him for "help." 

According to Politico, Trump settled on Memphis after being told a "sir story" by Jim Vena, the CEO of Union Pacific, who was lobbying for Trump's approval of a pending merger. In Trump's version, Vena told him, "Sir, ... when I walk one block to my hotel, they won’t allow me to do it, they put me in an armored vehicle with bullet-proof glass to take me one block."

Asked for confirmation of what would be a pretty ridiculous policy if it were true—the parts of Memphis where a CEO and FedEx board member stay are about as dangerous as the tourist fish restaurant around the corner from the White House—Union Pacific issued a vague statement that avoided directly calling Trump a liar by saying that Vena had discussed the safety of their "employees and customers' cargo."
 

Why does this matter?

• Presidents who have support for their policies don't need to lie about having support for their policies.
   
• Trump's need to look tough doesn't justify putting military boots on the ground of American cities. 

• Americans are not the enemy that America's military is meant to fight.