Police deploy tear gas and munitions to disperse protesters during a demonstration in Portland, Ore., Sept. 5, 2020. (AP)
"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," Trump posted to Truth Social on Saturday morning.
"I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" he added.
George Floyd's death on Memorial Day in 2020 sparked nationwide protests and riots, but in Portland, unrest raged for more than 100 consecutive nights, with the city recording a staggering 144% increase in homicides between 2019 and 2021, and millions of dollars in damages to businesses and government buildings.
Trump was in office during the riots and protests of 2020, as his administration juggled the coronavirus pandemic — including state lockdowns and vaccine requirements for some workers — while Trump faced Joe Biden and the Democratic Party at the ballot box.
Trump railed against the violence that played out in The City of Roses, while the Department of Homeland Security launched the Protecting American Communities Task Force to protect federal monuments, memorials, and other buildings from violence and vandalism in the city and other crime-rattled cities like it.
OREGON SUES OVER TRUMP ADMIN'S 'WAR-RAVAGED PORTLAND' NATIONAL GUARD TROOP DEPLOYMENT
The task force was formed after rioters broke into the Multnomah County Justice Center at the end of May, igniting a fire inside and spray-painting the building. The justice center houses Portland police headquarters and a county jail, and sits next to the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse.
The federal courthouse faced repeated vandalism, including rioters launching fireworks at the building, graffiting the exterior with anti-police slogans, and breaking its windows. The task force worked to protect the Hatfield building, as well as a handful of other federal buildings, from attacks, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Federal officers fire crowd control munitions at protesters outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Ore., July 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Federal law enforcement officials on the task force, however, were phased out of the city that summer, with local police replacing federal officers who worked to protect federal buildings beginning at the end of July.
Critics accused Trump of abusing power by deploying federal authorities to Portland. A coalition of Democratic mayors — including leaders from Washington, D.C., Portland and Chicago — urged Congress to block further deployments, arguing it threatened the First Amendment.
Protests and riots continued in the city in the fall months of 2020 — when the final leg of the federal election dominated headlines – and after federal officials left the city. Federal law enforcement officials had been phased out of the city by Aug. 31, according to a DHS Inspector General report published in 2021.
National Guard troops patrol Washington, D.C., after Trump ordered their deployment in August 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
"We don’t have a crime problem in Washington anymore," Trump told reporters earlier in September of the crackdown. "And the mayor has been very helpful."
Two hundred National Guard members are expected to converge on Portland in the coming days. The campaign follows Chicago's ongoing "Midway Blitz" crime crackdown to weed out illegal immigrants in the Windy City, and as Memphis, Tennessee, prepares to receive its own teams of federal law enforcement and National Guard members later this week to combat crime in the southern city.
Portland has seen ongoing issues with crime, including rampant drug use and homelessness, and has seen flaring protests over the summer — most notable near a Portland ICE facility — as the Trump administration carried out various immigration crackdowns across the country.
Anti-ICE graffiti was scrawled on the outside of the Portland ICE facility, while the demonstrations have become violent at times between protesters and federal agents, prompting authorities to use rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bangs to break up the crowds, Fox Digital reported earlier this month.
In August, protesters displayed a guillotine and fought with police before officers fired munitions to disperse the crowd.
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Oregon sued the Trump administration on Sunday in an attempt to prevent the deployment of 200 National Guard members to Portland. The National Guard members began arriving to the city over the weekend, Fox Digital previously reported.
Local leaders have slammed Trump's order as "unlawful," while arguing the city poses no threat to national security.
"Our city is a far cry from the war-ravaged community he has posted on social media," Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek told reporters at a news conference on Sunday. Kotek added that she spoke directly with Trump.
"There is no insurrection, there is no threat to national security and there is no need for military troops in our major city," she added.
Fox News Digital's Cameron Arcand, Michael Dorgan and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/portland-set-see-trump-crime-crackdown-reckoning-after-2020s-humiliating-violence-spree