U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he will send troops to Portland, Ore., “authorizing Full Force, if necessary” to handle “domestic terrorists” as he expands his controversial deployments to more American cities.
He made the announcement on social media, writing that he was directing the Department of Defence to “provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland.” Trump said the decision was necessary to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which he described as “under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for details on Trump’s announcement, such as a timeline for the deployment or what troops would be involved.
At a Friday night news conference, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley warned the public that Trump would try to create chaos. “Don’t take the bait,” he said.
“Our responsibility is to, yes, express our views. Yes, protest,” Merkley said. “But best done at a distance from these federal troops, wherever they might be and whatever they are doing, because their goal is to create an engagement, an engagement that will lead to conflict.”
Trump previously threatened to send the National Guard into Chicago but has yet to follow through. A deployment in Memphis, Tenn., is expected soon and will include only about 150 troops, far less than were sent to the District of Columbia for Trump’s crackdown on crime or in Los Angeles in response to immigration protests that turned violent with the troops’ arrival. Trump also sent Marines to Los Angeles.
Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to requests for information. Nor did the office of Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat.
Trump’s announcement comes several days after a shooting targeting an ICE facility in Dallas left one detainee dead and two others seriously wounded.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said Friday night that the city already was seeing a sudden surge in federal agents, describing armoured vehicles and agents arriving on the streets.
“We did not ask for them to come,” the Democratic mayor said. “They are here without clear precedent or purpose.”
History of protests
Portland, population 636,000, was the site of long-running and sometimes violent racial justice protests following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in 2020. The Trump administration sent hundreds of agents, including from the U.S. Border Patrol, for the stated purpose of protecting the federal courthouse and other federal property from vandalism.
Recent protests have been far more muted and focused on the area around the ICE building, located outside the city’s downtown that was the heart of the 2020 protests. The building’s main entrance and ground-floor windows have been boarded up and tagged with graffiti.
Some federal agents have been injured and several protesters have been charged with assault. Some demonstrators also say they’ve been injured. When protesters erected a guillotine earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security described it as “unhinged behaviour.”
Protests over racism and police brutality have been going on in Portland, Ore., almost daily for over 50 days since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. The Trump administration has deployed federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on the protests.
Meantime, city groups and officials have sought to highlight the recovery of the downtown area since 2020.
This summer was reportedly the busiest for pedestrian traffic since before the coronavirus pandemic, and overall violent crime in Portland from January through June decreased by 17 per cent this year compared to the same period in 2024, a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found.
The downtown has seen a decrease in homeless tent encampments that defined the years immediately after the pandemic.
Since the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Trump has escalated his efforts to confront what he calls the “radical left,” which he blames for the country’s problems with political violence.
Trump, in comments Thursday in the Oval Office, suggested some kind of operation was in the works.
“We’re going to get out there and we’re going to do a pretty big number on those people in Portland,” he said, describing them as “professional agitators and anarchists.”
