President Trump said Saturday he has ordered the deployment of troops to Portland, Ore. — and authorized the use of “full force” if needed — marking the latest escalation of his controversial operations in U.S. cities, targeting what he calls “left-wing terrorism.”
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, 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,” the president wrote in a post on his social media platform.
“I am also authorizing full force, if necessary,” he said.
With he didn’t offer details on a timeline for the deployment or what troops would be involved, Trump appeared to be following up on comments he made Thursday in the Oval Office, when he told reporters he was “going to do a pretty big number on those people in Portland,” whom he described as “professional agitators and anarchists.”
Portland, a city of about 640,000 known for its progressive politics, has recently made national headlines for protests outside an ICE facility against Trump’s immigration policies.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on Friday called the already-growing federal presence on the city’s streets “disappointing news.”
“We did not ask for them to come,” the Democratic mayor said at a late Friday press conference. “They are here without precedent or purpose.”
On Saturday, Wilson fired back at Trump’s announcement, saying the number of “necessary troops” needed was “zero, in Portland and any other American city.”
“Our nation has a long memory for acts of oppression, and the president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it,” Wilson said in a statement. “Imagine if the federal government sent hundreds of engineers, teachers or outreach workers to Portland instead of a short, expensive and fruitless show of force.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Saturday urged residents to “stay calm and have a beautiful day,” writing on social media that her office had not been notified of “the reason or purpose of any military mission.”
Kotek, a Democrat, said she was reaching out to the White House and Homeland Security for more information.
“There is no national security threat in Portland,” she wrote. “Our communities are safe and calm.”
Saturday’s announcement, a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on Democratic-led cities, comes weeks after the president threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, which he called a “disaster” and a “killing field.”
Earlier this month, the president said he would deploy troops to Tennessee to “fix” the city of Memphis, which he called “deeply troubled.”
In August, after declaring a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., Trump announced that his administration would temporarily take over the local police department to combat crime in the district, despite data showing violent crime is down 26% from last year.
He also deployed the National Guard and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to suppress immigration protests earlier this year.