US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was directing the country’s military to deploy to Portland, in the state of Oregon.
Trump said he wanted to protect federal immigration facilities against “domestic terrorists”, and authorised the troops to use “full force, if necessary.”
Ordering the latest crackdown on a Democrat-led city, Trump said in a social media post that he was directing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth “to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, responding to Trump’s order, said: “The number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city. The president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it.”
Wilson said he learned of Trump’s order when he saw it on social media. He and other local leaders have urged calm. “This may be a show of force, but that’s all it is. It’s just a big show,” he said.
Violent crime in Portland has dropped in the first six months of 2025, data shows.
Homicides fell by 51 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier, according to preliminary data released by the Major Cities Chiefs Association in its Midyear Violent Crime Report.
That report showed Portland had 17 homicides in the period compared with 56 in Louisville, Kentucky, and 124 in Memphis, Tennessee, which have comparable population sizes.
In a press conference on Saturday, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, a Democrat, rejected the need for troops and said she has spoken with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“There is no insurrection, there is no threat to national security, and there is no need for military troops in our major city,” Kotek said.
“I’m going to continue communicating that to the president, and I hope he will be open to reconsidering the deployment.”
The Pentagon did not offer any clarification about whether Trump was deploying National Guard, active duty troops or perhaps a mix of the two, as was the case in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Asked about the Portland decision on Saturday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE agents needed to be protected amid protests against immigration raids.
“We’re not going to put up with it. This administration is not playing games,” she said in an interview on Fox News.
There have been growing tensions in major US cities over Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown days after a shooting targeting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas left one detainee dead and two others seriously wounded.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters that “crazy people” were trying to burn buildings in Portland. “They’re professional agitators and anarchists,” he said, without providing evidence.
Trump last week signed an executive order that declares the anti-fascist Antifa movement a domestic “terrorist organization” as part of a crackdown on what he claims is left-wing sponsored political violence.
Trump first sought to designate the movement as a domestic terror organisation during the nationwide George Floyd protests.
The most notorious episode involving the movement occurred in Portland in August 2020, when Michael Reinoehl, a self-identified Antifa supporter, shot and killed Aaron Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer.
Reinoehl was then killed by federal and local law enforcement officers during an attempt to arrest him.
Trump’s crackdown on municipalities led by Democrats including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington has spurred legal challenges and protests.
With Reuters
