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Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in our sister publication, Portland Mercury. We will be posting dispatches from Portland as they become available.
In an early Saturday morning post on Truth Social, President Trump wrote that he will be sending troops to “protect war ravaged Portland” as well as the city’s ICE facility from those he called “Antifa and other domestic terrorists.” More troubling still, the president also authorized his agents to use “full force, if necessary.”
This announcement came on the heels of Friday night’s press conference held by Mayor Keith Wilson and several state leaders, saying that the Trump administration had deployed additional federal agents to Portland’s ICE facility. The mayor labeled the administration’s move as “just a big show,” and along with others in attendance, encouraged Portlanders to “not take the bait,” or physically engage with ICE officers.
At this point, it’s unclear what type of troops the president plans on sending to the city—whether it’s more federal agents or the National Guard—or even how many would be deployed. Trump’s post came with the implied threat of sending troops to other cities with ICE facilities as well.
Deploying the National Guard to assist ICE agents—as the president did in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and plans to do in Memphis—would most likely face legal challenges, and happen under the objection of Democratic Governor Tina Kotek, who said Saturday that Oregon leaders were “provided no information on the reason or purpose of any military mission.”
“There is no national security threat in Portland. Our communities are safe and calm,” Kotek said in a statement issued by her office Saturday morning. “I ask Oregonians to stay calm and enjoy a beautiful fall day. We will have further comment when we have more information.”
For weeks President Trump has been issuing objectively false statements about Portland and the small, almost entirely peaceful protests that have been ongoing at the ICE facility in Southwest Portland. Besides falsely calling the city “war ravaged,” the president has also made other wildly inaccurate claims, including how “many people have died over the years in Portland” due to the protests, and labeling demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights as “professional agitators and anarchists.”
In reality, while there have been nightly protests at Portland’s ICE facility, the size of the crowd has rarely exceeded a couple dozen people, who regularly taunt the federal agents, but remain—on the whole—peaceful. This is in direct contrast to the federal officers who have reportedly made more than a dozen attacks on protesters, who gather on the sidewalk outside the ICE facility, chanting and squeezing squeaky toys as a symbol of the ease with which federal agents are provoked. Last week, the Oregonian reported and shared video footage of ICE agents shoving and hitting demonstrators, as well as using chemical spray against them, even as they were following the orders of officials, and not standing on federally controlled property. Agents were also reportedly firing less-lethal ammunition rounds specifically at the groins of protesters, repeatedly hitting at least one person in the face and body with their shield, and shoving those trying to help injured demonstrators to the ground, as well as those whose backs were turned away from officers.
A Portland Police officer recently testified in court that some of the clashes at the facility were “instigated” by ICE agents, who were “not following best practice.”
Depending on which troops the president decides to send into Portland, lawsuits are almost certain to follow. Earlier this month, District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled that Trump violated the Posse Comitatus Act by deploying 4,000 National Guard members and placing them in law enforcement roles. The ruling has been appealed by the Trump administration, and the case has been put on pause to allow Trump’s legal team to explain their actions to the court in greater detail.
As he did in Los Angeles, President Trump could also invoke the Insurrection Act to justify sending a large number of troops into Portland, but the rarely implemented action is only intended to be used against “an armed rebellion against the US federal government” and will certainly be challenged in court, as well as by military officials concerned about pitting US troops against American citizens.
Though currently focused on Portland, the president is also expected to send troops into Memphis, Tennessee—another blue city—though he will reportedly only be deploying 150 troops; far fewer than the number sent to Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
Attorney General Pam Bondi joined the president in publishing falsehoods on social media, writing on X Friday night that the federal government would fight back against the “continued onslaught of violence,” while seeking “the most serious available charges against all participants in these criminal mobs.”
Bondi ended the post with the words, “the rule of law will prevail.”
