Portland, Oregon has become President Trump’s newest target for National Guard invasion and blood-drenched hyperbole, as the administration deployed a couple hundred troops over the governor’s resistance this weekend.
In a new federal lawsuit, the state suggests that an inflammatory package on Fox News was the primary impetus for Trump’s new fixation.
“On September 5, 2025, Fox News aired a report on Portland ICE protests that included misleading clips from Portland protests in 2020,” the lawsuit said. “Shortly thereafter, President Trump appeared to reference events in the same misleading Fox News report when speaking to the press. A reporter asked which city President Trump planned to send troops to next, and he said he was considering targeting Portland because of news coverage the night before.”
The president promised to “wipe them out,” referring to the protesters.
Portland joins Los Angeles and Washington DC in beseeching the courts for relief from the unwanted military presence. California’s case has gone the furthest, bouncing from a district court — which found, among other things, that the occupation violated the 10th Amendment and the Posse Comitatus Act — to the 9th Circuit — which stayed the initial lower court order, suggesting that the deployment was likely within the president’s powers. The district court in DC has not yet issued a ruling.
In Portland, the administration has seized on ongoing protests outside of an ICE facility as justification for the occupation. In its filing, the state counters that the protests “have been small in recent weeks — typically involving less than thirty people — and the protesters’ activities have not necessitated any arrests since mid-June.” The lawsuit noted that the deployment of troops is likely to generate significantly more unrest than was happening before — Trump’s transparent aim in both D.C. and Los Angeles.
“All of these facts – together with the overwhelming evidence of the President’s true intentions — reveal the obvious truth: that this action was motivated by his desire to normalize the use of military troops for ordinary domestic law enforcement activity while also punishing politically disfavored jurisdictions like Portland, Oregon,” the suit said.
Trump has been candid in his desire to go after blue cities, regardless of the relative crime rate. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) — in whose state federal officers recently attacked protesters with tear gas and pepper balls, reportedly including the Chicago mayor and a candidate for the House of Representatives — predicted on MSNBC that the deployments are leading up to an effort to use the military to intimidate would-be Democratic voters and challenge the midterm election results if they don’t go Trump’s way.
The mass deployments of the Guard on very little pretext — and with very little to do — are racking up enormous bills. The Washington D.C. Guard has picked up trash and spread mulch to the tune of $201 million, per internal documents reviewed by USA Today. That estimate does not include the many Guard members in the district sent by other states.
Oregon also highlighted the economic hits taken by the occupied cities, as both LA and D.C. saw events cancelled and revenues drop amid inhabitants’ reluctance to come into contact with armed federal officers.
Read the lawsuit here:
