Note: USA Today asked for a column about Donald Trump’s recent visit to Memphis, where he claimed credit for its decline in crime.  The following is that column: 

Crime in Memphis: Trump failed to offer long-term fixes | Opinion

While President Trump appeared to nap, his appointees provided the over-the-top accolades that are standard for these events.

By Tom Jones, Opinion contributor

President Donald Trump’s traveling road show rolled into Memphis on March 23, arriving fully formed, complete with applause lines, supporting players, villains and a rambling script that bent toward performance art.

Memphis knows something about performance. It’s a city that gave the world blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll. It values authenticity over bombast.

Politically, it’s arguably the bluest city in the bluest county in ruby red Tennessee. The odds are greater that Elvis is alive than it will ever vote Republican, yet the state’s conservative, MAGA faithful joined the president for his event in the southwestern corner of the state that takes pride in the meme: “When you’re bad, you get put in the corner.”

It was unsurprising that Trump did not engage with Memphis as much as project onto it, ignoring its complexities ‒ population loss, intractable poverty and an underperforming economy ‒ and delivering a monologue rather than engaging in a conversation.

It was essentially another installment in the “I Alone Can Fix It” tour, claiming sole credit for a historic decline in crime in Memphis.

Trump claimed to have ‘fixed’ crime in Memphis

His mission to Memphis began Sept. 15, when he signed a presidential memorandum establishing the Memphis Safe Task Force, which became the basis for the massive deployment of officers from eight federal departments.

The agencies already were collaborating with Memphis police, but for Trump, he alone deserves credit.

The addition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel provokes the most controversy. The agency operates covertly, but it has inspired grassroots groups alerting immigrant communities to its locations while filming its excesses.

Trump said Memphis was “the murder capital of the USA,” before then saying crime has “been fixed” and claiming it was down 43%, even if the actual breakdown of crime in the city says differently.

Unlike Trump, Memphis Mayor Paul Young did not declare victory.