CNN thought they had the perfect angle on President Trump’s Memphis crime crackdown.
They were dead wrong.
And a CNN reporter got hit with one truth bomb that left the network scrambling for damage control.
CNN’s Memphis narrative backfires in spectacular fashion
The liberal media has been working overtime to paint President Trump’s law and order initiatives as unwelcome federal overreach.
CNN dispatched National Correspondent Ryan Young to Memphis this week to push that exact narrative – that local residents oppose Trump’s National Guard deployment to clean up their crime-ridden streets.
But one patriotic Memphis resident had other plans.
While Young was broadcasting live about supposed local opposition to Trump’s crime-fighting efforts, a Trump supporter appeared behind him holding a sign that read "Democrats Destroyed Memphis."
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Here’s CNN trying to convince America that Memphis residents don’t want help with their crime problem, and a local resident shows up with a sign calling out exactly who created the mess in the first place.
You had to see it to believe it.
The sign that CNN couldn’t ignore
As the segment continued, Young did something that probably made his producers cringe.
He asked the man to flip his sign around and show what was written on the back.
The other side read: "Thank you, President Trump."
Talk about destroying a narrative in real time.
CNN spent who knows how much money and resources trying to frame Trump’s Memphis operation as unwanted federal intrusion, only to have a local resident blow up their entire story with one simple sign.
To Young’s credit, he covered the incident without the usual CNN hostility and bias that viewers have come to expect.
But the damage was already done to their preferred storyline.
Trump’s Memphis operation delivers immediate results
The photobomb incident perfectly illustrated what’s really happening in Memphis versus what CNN wanted viewers to believe.
While the network was busy manufacturing opposition, Trump’s federal task force was busy making arrests and seizing illegal weapons.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed that the Memphis Safe Task Force had made 53 arrests and seized 20 illegal firearms in the first 48 hours of operation.¹
Those aren’t the numbers of an unwelcome federal presence – those are the results of a community desperate for help finally getting it.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller explained exactly why the federal surge was necessary to help local law enforcement.
"The idea that there is a square inch of block in this city where a citizen doesn’t feel safe is unacceptable," Miller stated.²
Miller also pledged unlimited federal support for Memphis police officers who have been outgunned and outnumbered by criminal elements for years.
"We are about to provide you with a level of support you cannot even imagine," Miller promised. "This isn’t just a task force. This is an all-of-government, unlimited support operation: ATF, DEA, FBI, ICE, Department of War, every resource we have."³
Miller emphasized that the federal agents wouldn’t just be doing paperwork.
"And they’re not going to be sitting behind a desk at a keyboard. We are sending in real cops with guns and badges to go out with you on the street every single night, making arrests," Miller added.⁴
"These are people who have taken down drug cartels, kingpins, the worst criminal offenders in the United States, standing with you, shoulder-to-shoulder," the Trump aide stated.⁵
The reality CNN doesn’t want you to know
Here’s what CNN’s Memphis coverage conveniently left out.
Memphis had the highest rate of violent crime per capita in 2024, including some of the highest per capita rates of murder, robbery, and aggravated assault in the entire country.⁴
The city that gave America Elvis Presley and rock and roll had been transformed into a war zone under Democrat leadership.
President Trump’s September 15th executive order mobilizing federal resources wasn’t federal overreach – it was a lifeline to a community that local Democrat politicians had abandoned.
"The city, a beacon of American culture that was Elvis’s home and is often called the birthplace of rock and roll and the blues, should be safe and secure for all of its citizens and Americans who visit its historic landmarks," Trump wrote in his executive order.⁵
That Trump supporter with the sign understood something CNN’s reporters apparently don’t: when your city has been destroyed by decades of failed Democrat policies, you welcome anyone willing to fix the problem.
Look, here’s what this photobomb really exposed
This wasn’t just some random guy with a sign making CNN look foolish – though he certainly accomplished that.
This was a perfect example of how out of touch the mainstream media has become with regular Americans.
CNN shows up in Memphis expecting to find residents angry about Trump’s crime crackdown, and instead they find people grateful that someone finally cares enough to do something about their deteriorating city.
The network was so committed to their anti-Trump narrative that they couldn’t see what was right in front of them: a community that’s been begging for help.
For folks who actually live in these Democrat-run cities, Trump’s law and order initiatives aren’t scary federal overreach – they’re the first sign of hope they’ve had in years.
That sign said everything you need to know about what’s really happening in Memphis.
Democrats destroyed the city with their soft-on-crime policies and defund-the-police nonsense.
And now residents are thanking President Trump for having the backbone to clean up the mess.
CNN can spin it however they want, but the truth has a way of photobombing their narratives when they least expect it.
The real question is how many more cities are going to get the Memphis treatment before Democrats figure out that their war on law enforcement was a disaster for the communities they claim to represent.
¹ Attorney General Pamela Bondi, Twitter Post, @AGPamBondi, October 1, 2025.
² Stephen Miller, Memphis Police Press Conference, Breitbart, October 2, 2025.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Donald J. Trump, Executive Order on Memphis Law Enforcement Task Force, The White House, September 15, 2025.
