President Donald Trump is sending troops into Portland, Oregon ‘effective immediately’ as residents mock his efforts to rid the ‘war ravaged’ city of ‘domestic terrorists’ with a federal takeover.
On Sunday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum ordering 200 members of the Oregon National Guard into federal service.
Hegseth said the troops would perform ‘federal functions for 60 days, including protecting federal property ”where protests are occurring or likely to occur”.’
The deployment is the latest in the US president’s campaign to improve crime rates, targeting Democrat-led cities including Washington DC and Los Angeles.
But residents have mocked the president, insisting there is no excessive crime and sharing images of Portland looking sunny and peaceful while sarcastically describing it as ‘war ravaged.’
One local @cheryl_v_w posted a photograph of the therapy llamas stationed at Portland International Airport where the troops will be landing.
‘Imagine the look on the faces of the troops landing in Portland when they’re being greeted by the therapy llamas at the airport,’ she wrote.
‘Yes, that’s a real thing we have here.’ The post showed two llamas wearing light blue deely boppers and matching saddles at the airport.
Portland residents have mercilessly mocked Donald Trump for saying he will send National Guard troops to the city to handle ‘domestic terrorists’. One local posted a photograph of the therapy llamas stationed at Portland International Airport where the troops will be landing
Pictured: Protesters stand outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on September 27, 2025 in Portland, Oregon, where Donald Trump is sending troops
Another resident posted an image of a street lined with trees cloaked in rainbow-colored crochets with the caption: ‘Makers unite. We knit at dawn. Portland prepares for war.’
‘Portland is a beautiful, safe, fun, and clean city. And anyone who says otherwise hasn’t visited or enjoyed our food trucks,’ another local wrote alongside a photograph of himself in a public park.
Several government, police and business leaders have also said soldiers are not needed in Oregon and Trump is presenting a patently false picture of the city.
The formal notice was sent to Governor Tina Kotek 9.30am Sunday, warning the troops must ‘protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who are performing Federal functions.’
The state has since filed a lawsuit in an effort to block the move.
‘The facts cannot justify this overreach,’ the 41-page lawsuit states.
‘Defendants’ heavy-handed deployment of troops threatens to escalate tensions and stokes new unrest.’
Hegseth’s order comes just one day after Trump announced on Truth Social that he was 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.’
Pictured: A protester holds a sign outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on September 27, 2025 in Portland, Oregon, where Trump is sending troops
Another resident posted an image of a street lined with trees cloaked in rainbow-colored crochets with the caption: ‘Makers unite. We knit at dawn. Portland prepares for war’
Kotek responded, saying that Trump was abusing his authority by sending troops into a city which was doing ‘just fine’ on its own.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on Saturday said there was no lawlessness or violence in his city.
Wilson said during a news conference the number of necessary troops is ‘zero’ in Portland, ‘and any other American city’.
‘This is an American city,’ Wilson said. ‘We do not need any intervention. This is not a military target.’
Wilson claimed that video footage showing violence in the city was from five years ago. He said the footage had been ‘recycled’.
Wilson told the news conference: ‘If President Trump came to Portland today, what he would find is people riding their bikes, playing sports, enjoying the sunshine, buying groceries or produce from a farmers’ market.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said there was no lawlessness or violence in his city at a news conference on Saturday (seen above)
A person stands near a sign near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland on Saturday
A person holds a flag that reads ‘Resist’ near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on Saturday
‘We’ve had hard conversations, and we’ve done important work in the years since that footage was taken, we reformed our public safety system.
‘We’ve refocused our community and on our economy, and we’ve redoubled our efforts to help our most vulnerable.’
Trump said the decision was necessary to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which he alleged are ‘under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists’.
‘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 wrote.
Trump also said he is authorizing ‘full force, if necessary’, but did not further elaborate.
There have been numerous protests at the ICE building in South Portland over the last several months.
People frustrated with Trump’s mass deportation policies began protesting in June, with one of the demonstrations morphing into a riot, according to police. Heavily armed law enforcement officers hit protestors with tear gas and rubber bullets.
There have been more protests in July and this month at the same facility, The Oregonian reported.
Pictured: Trump’s official declaration Saturday on Truth Social, his social media platform
President Donald Trump has announced he will be sending National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, a Democratic-run city once known for its lax-on-crime policies
The sidewalk by the ICE facility was mostly emptied out of protesters around 8pm on Saturday
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on the size and scope of the upcoming military deployment in Portland. There is also no further information on when troops are scheduled to arrive.
Portland is the latest city Trump has sent troops to, with Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. getting boots on the ground over the summer.
In August, he federalized Washington D.C.’s local police force while also activating the National Guard, claiming that the nation’s capital had been ‘overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people’.
Following these actions, Trump has openly mused about sending troops to other cities, including New York City and Chicago.
After Trump said earlier in September that he would be sending soldiers to Memphis, the city with the highest crime rate in the United States, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee confirmed Friday that federal agents are scheduled to arrive this coming Monday.
Officers from 13 federal agencies will join roughly 150 National Guard troops and state police troopers to support local law enforcement, Lee added.
Portland, though not nearly as crime-ridden as Memphis, has had its fair share of problems over the last several years.
Trump cited far-left individuals protesting and rioting at an ICE facility in the city as the main reason he is sending the military there (Pictured: Police spray tear gas and shoot rubber bullets at protestors blocking the ICE facility on June 18)
Pictured: Customs and Border Protection agents detain a man protesting outside the ICE building in Portland on June 14
The downtown area of Portland suffered a decline in the last few years, with tent encampments and drug use running rampant. File photo from January 2024
The city is known for its homeless problem, with many encampments crowding the formerly desirable downtown area.
Drug use was rampant in these encampments, something exacerbated by Oregon’s attempt to decriminalize formerly illicit substances.
The new law reduced possession of heroin, fentanyl and meth to the level of a parking ticket.
Fatal opioid overdoses surged, from 280 in 2019, to 628 in just the first six months of 2023 as homeless encampments and open-air drug markets spread throughout the city.
After intense pressure, state lawmakers reversed the decriminalization with a law that went into effect on September 1, 2024.
Another factor in Portland’s troubles in recent years, according to critics, was the election of Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt in May 2020.
Schmidt was sworn in just before the death of George Floyd and once costly racial justice riots began to spread across the country, including to Portland, he took a soft approach.
He vowed not to prosecute rioters unless there was evidence of ‘deliberate’ property damage, theft, or threat of force. Of 550 cases referred by police, just 47 went to trial.
More than 2,600 businesses had fled the city center by September 2022 as shoppers avoided downtown areas and retail theft began to spiral.
However, the new district attorney for the county, Nathan Vasquez, has been focused on reducing crime, an effort he believes will help the city’s economy can recover.
