Donald Trump lands in Memphis the week of the Memphis Safe Task Force and Graceland visit

Donald Trump flew from Los Angeles International Airport to Memphis International Airport on June 17, a 3-hour 11-minute trip aboard his customized Boeing 757-200. The flight arrived late that evening, just ahead of a week that finds the president's attention fixed on the region for multiple reasons.

The same week, the Department of Justice, at Trump's direction, filed a motion on June 15 to intervene in a Clean Air Act lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI, arguing that the company's unpermitted gas turbines near Memphis are a matter of national security, per Electrek. The move places the Trump administration alongside Musk in court, defending dozens of methane-burning turbines that have been running without air permits in Southaven, Mississippi, just across the state line from the Colossus data center in South Memphis.

This is not Trump's first trip to Memphis this year. In March, he visited to highlight the Memphis Safe Task Force's anti-crime work, and toured Graceland, calling it a surprise diversion from the Iran war. The June 17 flight from Los Angeles follows a pattern of the president shuttling between his Palm Beach base and Washington-area airports, with Newark, Dulles, and LaGuardia among his frequent stops, per the briefing.