Live updates: National Guard deployments, Chicago and Portland court hearings
With its history of protest and progressive politics, Portland, Oregon, has been a target of President Donald Trump since his first term.
Unlike other Democratic-run cities where the president has tried to send federal troops, the Pacific Northwest city isn’t even among the nation’s 30 largest metro areas.
Despite Trump’s claims that federal troops are needed because the city is “war-ravaged,” Portland did not rank among the 30 U.S. cities with the highest violent crime rates last year, according to the Real Time Crime Index — and its violent crime numbers have been dropping.
Trump said he would be watching Portland closely since 2018, when demonstrators set up outside an ICE facility in the city.
Protests erupted in the city after the death of George Floyd in 2020, with thousands rallying for more than 100 days. Without approval from local leaders, Trump sent more than 700 officers from federal agencies. Oregon’s attorney general at the time sued the federal government in response.
As protests have continued in the city this year over the administration’s immigration actions, Trump escalated his response by calling in National Guard troops. The protests are ongoing, as a legal battle unfolds over Trump’s federalization of the National Guard in Oregon.