The Trump administration awarded more than $60 million each to St. Louis, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi to fight crime.
Published November 10, 2026
President Donald Trump’s administration announced it will award more than $60 million each to the cities of St. Louis, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi to expand law enforcement resources as part of efforts to combat violent crime.
The White House said in a social media post Tuesday that the so-called “Model Cities Initiative” will help local governments increase their prosecution and policing capabilities.
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“The Model Cities Initiative reflects the Trump Administration’s commitment to reducing crime across the country and ensuring the safety of all Americans,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release describing the program last month.
The initiative announced it would allocate nearly $300 million for such efforts to the cities of St. Louis and Jackson, Jacksonville, Florida, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Trump administration has promoted a largely punitive approach to fighting crime in cities across the country, including controversial measures such as deploying the National Guard to Democratic-led cities that have drawn accusations of executive overreach, civil liberties violations and political intimidation.
President Trump and his allies believe their policies have led to a decline in violent crime, a trend that predates Trump’s return to office and is occurring in cities across the country with different approaches to criminal justice.
Homicides in St. Louis, for example, have declined in recent years after briefly rising during the coronavirus pandemic, reaching their lowest level in more than a decade in the first half of 2026.
Democratic officials have condemned President Trump’s crackdown, but some Republican-led states have embraced it.
The government sent several federal agency officials to Memphis, Tennessee, a city in a Republican-led state that is controlled by Democrats at the local level.
The Trump administration has touted the effort as inspiration for the Model Cities Initiative, along with other examples such as Washington, D.C.
While the government has hailed the Memphis deployment as a success, some residents and civil rights groups have accused the task force of widespread civil rights violations and excessive use of force.
A video released earlier this month as part of an investigation into the shooting by Tennessee National Guard troops deployed to Memphis as part of President Trump’s task force showed soldiers pointing guns at a man who had been shot in the back and was lying dying on the street.
